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GELEBRATLING 
40 YEARS OF 
AN ENTERPRISING 
SPIRIT 


In 1926, Hans Wilsdorf created the first 
waterproof wristwatch: the legendary 
Rolex Oyster. Inspired by his enterprising 
spirit, Rolex launched the Rolex Awards 
for Enterprise in 1976 to support visionary 
people advancing human knowledge and 
well-being. Forty years later, the Awards 
continue to celebrate men and women with 
the passion, vision and commitment 
to make the world a better place. 


ANYONE CAN CHANGE EVERYTHING 


rolexawards.com 


] 


au 


AN OFFICIAL ROLEX JEWELER VISIT ROLEX.COM. ROLEX W ARE ® TRADEMARKS. NEW YORK 


FOr 











ROLEX 
Awards for Enterprise 
4.0rH ANNIVERSARY 


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@2016 Canon Inc. canon.com 





Water wings. The Humboldt penguin’s gracetul 
swimming has been likened to “Tlying” under 
water. When foraging for its partner or chicks, 
this penguin may spend as much as nine 
hours a day beneath the waves, diving in 
search of pelagic schooling fish and other prey. 
During breeding season it returns without fail 
to the same nesting site, but when people 








Humboldt Penguin (Soheniscus humboldti) 

Size: Body length, 65 - 70 cm (25.6 - 27.6 inches) Weight: 4 - 4.7 kg (8.8 - 10.4 Ib) 
Habitat: Nests on rocky stretches of mainland and island coasts Surviving number: 
Estimated at 2,500 — 10,000 adults 


Photographed by Cyril Ruoso 


WILDLIFE AS CANON SEES IT 


approach the vicinity its heart rate skyrockets 
under the stress. Human disturbance, along with 
fishing-related mortality, are the banes of the 
penguin’s existence. 

As Canon sees it, images have the power to 
raise awareness of the threats facing endangered 
species and the natural environment, helping 
us make the world a better place. 





Canon 


CONTENTS 


DECEMBER 2016 * VOL. 230 ® NO. 6 ® OFFICIAL JOURNAL OF THE NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 


DEPARTMENTS 


3 QUESTIONS 
Emily Briere is packing 
time capsules for Mars 


VISIONS 


EXPLORE 

Lightning, Santas, 
Jackfruit, Field Notes, 
Basic Instincts 


STARTALK 
A Q&A with Andy Weir, 
author of The Martian 





SPECIAL POSTER: 
SAVING UNIQUE 
HABITATS 


Onthe Cover Si. Catherine 
swoons after receiving the 
stigmata in this 1526 fresco by 
Giovanni Antonio Bazzi at the 
Basilica Cateriniana San Domeni- 
co in Siena, Italy. Pilgrims visit her 
shrine in search of cures. 
Leemage/Corbis via Getty Images 


Corrections and Clarifications 
Go to ngm.com/corrections. 


FEATURES 


/O 


THE PUTIN GENERATION 


Young Russians — like those below, celebrating the school year’s end — grew up after the 
Soviet Union fell and Viadimir Putin came to power. Where will they take their country? 
By Julia loffe Photographs by Gerd Ludwig 


30 | MIND OVER MATTER 
Scientists are discovering how belief — 
through placebos, rituals, and mystical 
experiences — can affect the way we heal. 


By Erik Vance 
Photographs by Erika Larsen 


102 | THE PARKS OF TOMORROW 


America’s national parks will always be 
beautiful, but a warming climate forces us 


to accept that they can’t be frozen in time. 


By Michelle Nijhuis 
Photographs by Keith Ladzinski 





56 | ORANGUTANS AT RISK 


Researchers are gaining vital insights into 
the private lives of orangutans, but the 
elusive red apes face a precarious future. 


By Mel White 
Photographs by Tim Laman 


122 | WHERE DREAMS LIVE ON 
A half-abandoned research station in 
Tanzania Is alive with the hopes and 
memories of those who worked there. 


By Jeremy Berlin 
Photographs by Evgenia Arbugaeva 


' CONTENTS 


ELSEWHERE 


TELEVISION 
JOIN THE DARING MISSION TO MARS 
Actor JiHAE plays a pilot in the six-part series MARS, which blends 


documentary footage and scripted drama. The global event series airs 
at 9/8c on Mondays through December 19, on National Geographic. 





TELEVISION 
WHO SURVIVES IN THE SAVAGE KINGDOM? 


The battles among warring clans play out like Game of Thrones—but the 
royal families are Africa's lions, leopards, hyenas, and more. The mini- 
series Savage Kingdom debuts November 25 at 9/8c on Nat Geo WILD. 


' \ 





PHOTOS: ROBERT VIGLASKY, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CHANNELS (TOP); NATIONAL 
GEOGRAPHIC CHANNELS/NHF 





NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BOOKS 


JUST HOW SUGGESTIBLE 
IS THE HUMAN BRAIN? 


Science writer Erik 
Vance examines 

the power of belief 
to influence us, in 
this issue’s cover 
story — and in his 
new book, Suggest- 
ible You: The Curious 
Science of Your Brain’s 
Ability to Deceive, 
Transform, and Heal. 
Available wherever books are sold and 

at shop.nationalgeographic.com. 





VIRTUAL REALITY AND VIDEO 


GLIMPSES OF LIFE AMONG 
THE ORANGUTANS OF BORNEO 


See how orangutans contend with 
threats to their habitats and existence, 
in an exclusive virtual-reality experience. 
Then watch the compelling story of an 
orangutan mother raising her baby, in 

a National Geographic video. Both are 
online at ngm.com/Dec2016. 





NATGEO.COM VIDEO 


NEW HOPE FOR REFUGEES—AND 
THEIR PLACES OF REFUGE 


When refugees fleeing conflict arrive 

in declining Italian villages, everyone 
benefits —as when a refugee named 
Assan met a local named Cosmano in 
the town of Camini. See the moving story 
of their friendship at ngm.com/Dec2016. 





NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC TRAVEL 


THE ANNUAL ‘BEST OF THE 
WORLD’ ISSUE IS HERE 


A Mediterranean island, an alpine Eden, 
a vibrant megacity — tour those destina- 
tions and 18 more that made Traveler’s 
annual “Best of the World” list. Find the 
magazine's special issue on newsstands, 
or read it online at NatGeoTravel.com. 





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200-hp Direct-Injection Turbocharged SUBARU BOXER’ engine, and a 2016 IIHS 


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actual price. Certain equipment may be required in specific states, which can modify your MSRP. See your retailer for details. 2017 Subaru Forester 2.0XT Touring shown 
has an MSRP of $35,890. Vehicle shown with available accessories. 


FROM THE PRESIDENT | 


WE ARE ALLIES 
IN EARTH'S CARE 


Planet Earth is amazing, it’s diverse—and 
it needs all our help, now more than ever. 
That’s why we at National Geographic 
are redoubling our commitment to ex- 
ploring and helping to protect it. With 
an endowment that is now around one 
billion dollars, we can have more impact 
than ever. 

About 128 years ago, the nonprofit 
National Geographic Society was found- 
ed with acommitment to “increase and 
diffuse geographic knowledge.” For more 
than a century we've explored the world, 
making discoveries and inspiring peo- 
ple with our images and stories. That’s 
still the core of what we do. But now our 
planet is at a crossroads. We must push 
further, and we can’t do it alone. 

We live in an exciting age of explora- 
tion with more opportunities to make 
discoveries—and make a difference— 
than ever before. It’s time to be bold, to 
act urgently, in order to ensure a health- 
ier and more sustainable existence for 
generations to come. Only by acting as 
atrue global community can we halt the 
pollution of oceans, the trafficking of 
wildlife, the destruction of critical hab- 
itats, and other threats to life on Earth. 

You play an important role. Asa reader 
and supporter, you’re part of a powerful 
community of curious and passionate 
people helping to create solutions and 
effect meaningful, long-lasting change. 

Thanks to your support, we’ve had 
some real breakthroughs. Last year, 
backed by our new Special Investigations 
Unit, journalist Bryan Christy used a fake 


HONORING OUR LEGACY 


elephant tusk implanted with a tracking 
device to reveal how illegal ivory was trav- 
eling through Africa. Our Pristine Seas 
project, overseen by marine biologist 
Enric Sala, has helped protect more than 
one million square miles of ocean since 
its launch in 2008. 

Asa fatherI can think of nothing more 
important than helping to give our next 
generation a healthier future. It’s a wor- 
thy goal that we can all share and work 
toward—now more than ever. 


ZW 


Gary E. Knell, President and CEO 
National Geographic Society 





PHOTO: MARK THIESSEN, NGM STAFF 





“Then let us a the legwork. You’ II explore with private guides, get ac access to local experts, and aey 
an intimate perspective on incredible places around the globe—from Costa Rica to South Africa to 
Australia. Choose from more than 20 unique itineraries, or let us help you craft your dream trip. 


Visit rel ater=| || 


GEOGRAPHIC 


PRIVATE EXPEDITIONS 


© 2016 National Geographic Partners. 
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PRIVATE EXPEDITIONS and the Yellow Border Design are trademarks of 
the National Geographic Society, used under license. 


Photo: Sabi Sabi Earth Lodge, South Africa 


OUR CHANGING 
ROLE IN PARKS 


What happens if there are no more gla- 
ciers in Glacier National Park? 

In 2016 we have focused in the mag- 
azine and digital platforms on parks in 
the United States and worldwide. We did 
so to celebrate the 100th anniversary 
of the U.S. National Park Service—and 
because parks are a fascinating lens 
through which to explore changes and 
challenges in our planet’s environment, 
wildlife, and climate. 

Though “protected,” parks clearly 
are not immune from the man-made 
and natural forces that are altering their 
landscapes and the habitats of the ani- 
mals that live within their borders. 

Take glaciers. In 1850 there were about 
150 massive ones in what is now Glacier 
National Park (above), near the Cana- 
dian border in Montana. Today just 25 
remain, and scientists believe even the 
largest of them will disappear by 2030. 

In Sequoia National Park in Califor- 
nia, home to towering trees that can live 
3,000 years, climate change is boosting 
temperatures, but with uncertain re- 
sults. “We don’t know which scenario 
will play out,” says Sequoia Superinten- 
dent Woody Smeck in this issue. Will it 





mean more or less rain? Will change be 
abrupt or gradual? 

This is why, a century after the Park 
Service was founded, it’s looking anew 
at its role in conserving land- and sea- 
scapes by managing parks not as static 
terrain but as places of transformation. 

That has meant moving an iconic 
lighthouse inland at North Carolina’s 
Cape Hatteras National Seashore. It may 
mean planting sequoia seedlings above 
the current range, in the cooler, higher 
parts of Sequoia National Park. And at 
Assateague Island National Seashore in 
Maryland, it means teaching students 
about sea rise the way chief of education 
Liz Davis does: by throwing a bucket of 
water on a sand model of the park. 

When people ask her about the future 
of parks, Davis gives an answer that is 
hopeful—and that may prove true only 
if we all do our part. 

“People ask, “Will my kids and grand- 
kids be able to enjoy it?’” Davis says. 
“Yes, they will. They might not enjoy it 
in the same way, and they might not get 
here the same way. But they will still be 
able to enjoy it.” 


Uae. A lon, 


Susan Goldberg, Editor in Chief 





PHOTO: KEITH LADZINSKI 












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NATIONAL 
GEOGRAPHIC 


We believe in the power of science, exploration, and storytelling to change the world. 


EDITOR IN CHIEF Susan Goldberg 


DEPUTY EDITOR IN CHIEF: Jamie Shreeve. MANAGING EDITOR: David Brindley. EXECUTIVE EDITOR 
DIGITAL: Dan Gilgoff. DIRECTOR OF PHOTOGRAPHY: Sarah Leen. EXECUTIVE EDITOR NEWS AND FEATURES: 
David Lindsey. CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Emmet Smith 


NEWS/FEATURES SHORT-FORM DIRECTOR: Patricia Edmonds. DEPUTY NEWS DIRECTOR: Gabe Bullard. 
epitors: Marla Cone, Christine Dell’Amore, Peter Gwin, John Hoeffel, Victoria Jaggard, Robert 
Kunzig, Glenn Oeland, Oliver Payne. writers: Jeremy Berlin, Eve Conant, Michael Greshko, Brian 
Clark Howard, Becky Little, Laura Parker, Kristin Romey, Rachel Hartigan Shea, Daniel Stone, 
Mark Strauss, Nina Strochlic, A. R. Williams, Catherine Zuckerman. CONTRIBUTING WRITERS: Robert 


Draper, Cynthia Gorney, David Quammen, Craig Welch. sPECIAL INvesTiGaTIONs: Bryan Christy; The National 
Rachael Bale, Jani Actman. ADMINISTRATION: Natasha Daly Geographic 
PHOTOGRAPHY DEPUTY DIRECTORS: Whitney C. Johnson, Patrick Witty. YoUR SHOT DIRECTOR: Society 
Monica C. Corcoran. BUSINESS MANAGER: Jenny Trucano. SENIOR PHOTO EDITORS: Kathy Moran ; label 
(Natural History), Kurt Mutchler (Science); Todd James, Alexa Keefe, Sadie Quarrier, IS a globa 


Vaughn Wallace, Jessie Wender, Nicole Werbeck. associaATE PHOTO EDITORS: Matt Adams, Mallory nonprofit 
Benedict, Adrian Coakley, Janna Dotschkal, Jehan Jillani. PHOTO PRODUCER: Jeanne M. mamberehi 
Modderman. ASSISTANT PHOTO EDITORS: Melody Rowell, Jake Rutherford. STAFF PHOTOGRAPHERS: p 
Rebecca Hale, Mark Thiessen. bDiGITAL IMAGING: Christina Micek, Edward Samuel. PHOTO organization 
coopiNnATors: Edward Benfield, Lisa Jewell, Elena Sheveiko. ADMINISTRATION: Veronica Kresse committed to 
exploring and 


protecting 
our planet. 


DESIGN pDIRECTOR: Michael Tribble. SENIOR DESIGN EDITORS: John Baxter, Elaine H. Bradley. DESIGN 
EDITOR: Hannah Tak. DESIGN SPECIALISTS: Scott Burkhard, Sandi Owatverot-Nuzzo 


ART/GRAPHICS DIRECTOR: John Tomanio. SENIOR GRAPHICS EDITORS: Fernando G. Baptista, Manuel 
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GRAPHICS EDITORS: Riley Champine, Daisy Chung, Andrew Umentum. RESEARCHER: Ryan Williams 


CARTOGRAPHY DIRECTOR: Damien Saunder. DIRECTOR OF CARTOGRAPHIC DATABASES: [Theodore A. 
Sickley. SENIOR CARTOGRAPHY EDITORS: Ryan Morris (Interactives); Matthew W. Chwastyk. 
CARTOGRAPHY EDITORS: Lauren E. James, Charles A. Preppernau. map EDIToR: Rosemary P. Wardley. 
BUSINESS OPERATIONS SPECIALIST: Nicole Washington 


COPY/RESEARCH DEPUTY MANAGING EDITOR: Amy Kolczak. RESEARCH DIRECTOR: Alice S. Jones. 
copy Ebitors: Preeti Aroon, Cindy Leitner, Mary Beth Oelkers-Keegan. RESEARCHERS: Elizabeth S. 
Atalay, Christy Ullrich Barcus, Nora Gallagher, Taryn L. Salinas, Heidi Schultz, Brad Scriber 


DIGITAL PUBLISHING CREATIVE DIRECTOR: Bethany Powell. PROGRAMMING DIRECTOR: Alissa Swango. 
ADVENTURE EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Mary Anne Potts. vibEo pirREcTor: James Williams. SENIOR 
BLOGGER: April Fulton. pesigNers: Kevin DiCesare, Chan Young Park, Vitomir Zarkovic. WEB 
PRODUCERS: Janey Adams, Heather Brady, Korena Di Roma, Jess Estepa, April Fehling, Sarah 
Gibbens, John Kondis, Kat Long, Francis Rivera. vinEo PRobucERs: Jeff Hertrick; Stephanie Atlas, 
James Burch, Kathryn Carlson, Gabriella Garcia-Pardo, Will Halicks, Rachel Link, Nick Lunn, 
Edythe McNamee, Jennifer Murphy, Jed Winer. EpitoriAL services: Nancy Gupton; Liane 
DiStefano, Emily Shenk Flory, Brett Weisband. PRODUCTION MANAGERS: Lisa Covi, Trish Dorsey. 
coorpinators: Rachel Brown, Sandra Oyeneyin 


OPERATIONS/FINANCE ASSISTANT TO EDITOR IN CHIEF: Joey Wolfkill. BUSINESS OPERATIONS: Cole 
Ingraham; Tracey Franklin, Jacqueline Rowe, Edwin Sakyi. FINANCE: Jeannette Swain; Nikisha 
Long; Allison Bradshaw, Leticia Rivera 


COMMUNICATIONS DIRECTORS: Ann Day, Anna Kukelhaus Dynan. NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE 
VICE PRESIDENT: Alice Keating; Mimi Dornack, Stacy Gold, John Rutter. CONTENT STRATEGY VICE 
PRESIDENT: Dave E. Smith. SENIOR BUSINESS ANALYsT: Gina L. Cicotello. systems: Robert Giroux, 
Patrick Twomey 


CONSUMER MARKETING EXECUTIVE VICE PRESIDENT: Terrence Day. SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT MEMBER 
MARKETING: Elizabeth M. Safford. vice PRESIDENTS: John MacKethan, John A. Seeley. DIRECTORS: 
Anne Barker, Richard Brown, Tracy Pelt 


PRODUCTION SERVICES SENIOR VICE PRESIDENT: Phillio L. Schlosser. IMAGING VICE PRESIDENT: Thomas 
J. Craig; Wendy K. Smith; Rahsaan J. Jackson. QUALITY TECHNICAL DIRECTOR: Clayton R. 
Burneston; Michael G. Lappin, William D. Reicherts. DiSTRIBUTION AND ADVERTISING PRODUCTION: 
Kristin M. Semeniuk. BUSINESS MAGAZINE DIRECTOR: Greg Storer 


INTERNATIONAL EDITIONS DEPUTY EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Darren Smith. MULTIMEDIA EDITOR: Laura L. 
Toraldo. PRODUCTION SPECIALIST: Beata Kovacs Nas 


EDITORS ARABIC: Alsaad Omar Almenhaly. BRAzIL: Ronaldo Ribeiro. BULGARIA: Krassimir Drumev. 
CHINA: Ai Shaogiang. croatia: Hrvoje Prcic. czecHia: Tomas Turecek. EsToNIA: Erkki Peetsalu. 
FARSI: Babak Nikkhah Bahrami. FRANCE: Jean-Pierre Vrignaud. georaia: Levan Butkhuzi. 
GERMANY: Florian Gless. HUNGARY: Tamas Vitray. INDIA: Niloufer Venkatraman. INDONESIA: Didi 
Kaspi Kasim. isRAEL: Daphne Raz. itaty: Marco Cattaneo. JAPAN: Shigeo Otsuka. KAZAKHSTAN: 
Yerkin Zhakipov. KOREA: Junemo Kim. LATIN AMERICA: Claudia Muzzi Turullols. LITHUANIA! 
Frederikas Jansonas. NETHERLANDS/BELGIUM: Aart Aarsbergen. NORDIC COUNTRIES: Karen Gunn. 
POLAND: Martyna Wojciechowska. PORTUGAL: Gongalo Pereira. ROMANIA: Catalin Gruia. RUSSIA: 
Andrey Palamarchuk. serBiA: Igor Rill. seovenia: Marija Javornik. SPAIN: Josep Cabello. TAIWAN: 
Yungshih Lee. THAILAND: Kowit Phadungruangkij. TURKEY: Nesibe Bat 


NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ¢ DECEMBER 2016 


NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC SOCIETY 


PRESIDENT AND CEO Gary E. Knell 
BOARD OF TRUSTEES 


CHAIRMAN: Jean N. Case 
VICE CHAIRMAN: Tracy R. Wolstencroft 


Wanda M. Austin, Brendan P. Bechtel, Michael R. 
Bonsignore, Alexandra Grosvenor Eller, William R. 
Harvey, Gary E. Knell, Jane Lubchenco, Mark C. 
Moore, George Munoz, Nancy E. Pfund, Peter H. 
Raven, Edward P. Roski, Jr., Frederick J. Ryan, Jr., 
Ted Waitt, Anthony A. Williams 


INTERNATIONAL COUNCIL OF ADVISORS 


Darlene T. Anderson, Michael S. Anderson, Sarah 
Argyropoulos, Lucy and Henry Billingsley, Richard 
C. Blum, Sheila and Michael Bonsignore, Diane and 
Hal Brierley, Howard G. Buffett, Pat and Keith 
Campbell, Jean and Steve Case, Alice and David 
Court, Barbara and Steve Durham, Juliet C. Folger, 
Michael J. Fourticg, Warren H. Haruki, Joan and 
David Hill, Lyda Hill, David H. Koch, Deborah M. 
Lehr, Sven Lindblad, Juli and Tom Lindquist, Jho 
Low, Claudia Madrazo de Hernandez, Pamela Mars 
Wright, Edith McBean, Susan and Craig McCaw, 
Mary and Gregory M. Moga Ill, Mark C. Moore, 
Pearl and Seymour Moskowitz, Timothy S. Nash, 
Caryl D. Philips, Mark Pruzanski, Gayle and Edward 
P. Roski, Jr., Jeannie and Tom Rutherfoord, Victoria 
Sant, Donna Socia Seegers, Hugo Shong, Jill and 
Richard Sideman, Jessica and Richard Sneider, 
Philip Stephenson, Mary Hart and Burt Sugarman, 
Clara Wu Tsai, Garry Weber, Angie and Leo Wells, 
Judith and Stephen Wertheimer, Tracy R. 
Wolstencroft, B. Wu and Eric Larson, Jeffrey M. Zell 


RESEARCH AND EXPLORATION COMMITTEE 
CHAIRMAN: Peter H. Raven 


Paul A. Baker, Kamaljit S. Bawa, Colin A. Chapman, 
Janet Franklin, Carol P. Harden, Kirk Johnson, 
Jonathan B. Losos, John O’Loughlin, Steve 
Palumbi, Naomi E. Pierce, Jeremy A. Sabloff, 
Monica L. Smith, Thomas B. Smith, Christopher P. 
Thornton, Wirt H. Wills 


EXPLORERS-IN-RESIDENCE 


Robert Ballard, Lee R. Berger, James Cameron, 
Sylvia Earle, J. Michael Fay, Beverly Joubert, 
Dereck Joubert, Louise Leakey, Meave Leakey, 
Enric Sala 


FELLOWS 
Dan Buettner, Bryan Christy, Fredrik Hiebert, Zeb 
Hogan, Corey Jaskolski, Mattias Klum, Thomas 
Lovejoy, Sarah Parcak, Paul Salopek, Joel Sartore 


NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PARTNERS 
ceo Declan Moore 


SENIOR MANAGEMENT 


EDITORIAL DIRECTOR: Susan Goldberg 

CHIEF FINANCIAL OFFICER: Marcela Martin 
GLOBAL NETWORKS CEO: Courteney Monroe 
CHIEF COMMUNICATIONS OFFICER: Laura Nichols 
LEGAL AND BUSINESS AFFAIRS: Jeff Schneider 
CHIEF TECHNOLOGY OFFICER: Jonathan Young 


BOARD OF DIRECTORS 


CHAIRMAN: Gary E. Knell 
Jean N. Case, Randy Freer, Kevin J. Maroni, 


James Murdoch, Lachlan Murdoch, Peter Rice, 
Frederick J. Ryan, Jr. 





—— 
HOW SUGGESTIBLE ARE YOU? 





“— 
his is popular science at its best.” 


—Seth Mnookin, author of The Panic Virus 





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COULD THE SECRETS TO PERSONAL HEALTH LIE WITHIN OUR OWN BRAINS? 
Journalist Erik Vance explores the surprising ways our expectations and beliefs 
influence our bodily responses to pain, disease, and everyday events. This riveting 
narrative explores the world of placebos, hypnosis, false memories, and neurology 
to reveal the groundbreaking science of our suggestible minds. 


WATCH NOW 


AVAILABLE WHEREVER BOOKS ARE SOLD LIMES ROS AN INGROOVES NATIONAL 
INNIDW NN) NTO) Ue] =10le]:¥.\ 15] (ene) VI1:1010)45 oe oO GEOGRAPHIC 


© 2016 National Geographic Partners, LLC 





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3 QUESTIONS | EMILY BRIERE ~~ 


WHY I’M SENDING 
A TIME CAPSULE 
TO. MARS 


Emily Briere is planning a mission to Mars. The 
PXCEN=y-| ge) (0 Ma\=) £0)s) oy-(eom =) ale llalsiclaiale msyau(e(=lal mali aaromne) get 
a time capsule —a small satellite loaded with messages 
from Earth — to the red planet. As mission director of 
Time Capsule to Mars, she’s recruited students from 
colleges across the United States to meet a goal she 
describes as “ambitious, but just within reach.” 


Voyager carried records designed to communi- 
cate with aliens. Whom are you trying to reach? 
The time capsule is a challenge for humans to get out 
there and colonize Mars. One day, when we're there, 


it’ll be the kind of thing that’s put in the National. 


Geographic Museum or the Smithsonian to document 
how far we’ve come. 


How are you building the time capsule? 

It'll be a low-cost mission using a CubeSat satellite 
the size of two cereal boxes. You have to be a student 
to do hands-on work on the project. We’re building 
different subsystems at different universities. For 
example, a lab at MIT is doing ion electric-based 
propulsion, and a lab at Stanford is testing space 
environments. We would be the secondary payload 
of some big scientific mission. We’re saying we'll 
launch in the next three to five years, but it’s really a 
matter of funding. If everything were to go perfectly, 
we could launch sooner. 


What will the time capsule contain? 

Digital photos, videos, audio uploaded by people 
all around the world. We want the content of the 
capsule to provide a very broad and full snapshot 
of Earth as it is today. We’re on this mission to Mars 
together as humanity, rather than as a country or as 
an individual company. , 


PHOTO: REBECCA HALE, NGM STAFF. f 
THIS INTERVIEW WAS EDITED FOR LENGTH AND CLARITY. 


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NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC BOOKS, 
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AND AT NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM/BOOKS 











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FLASH POINTS 


By Catherine Zuckerman 


Venezuela’s Lake Maracaibo holds the 
bisiu betel aceyameymol-)belcmelelela em -Vaelssa ler Ms 
largest lake by area, but the skies above 
it also are record setting. There, light- 
ning flashes most nights of the year, 
new research shows—and perhaps no 
other place on Earth experiences more 
lightning annually. 

The phenomenon is tied to topogra- 
JO) SAVARST:AVASMOD OD AY(<) ASJIAVAO) Ret (ON =r-NEI Oba eloltcr 
orology professor Rachel Albrecht, who 
analyzed high-resolution satellite data 
to determine where lightning flashes 
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thunderstorms. 

Of the 500 lightning “hot spots” that 
the data revealed, more than half are 
situated in Africa, and of the top 30 
only six are not located near moun- 
tain ranges. Other revelations: Oceanic 
lightning tends to occur at night, while 
terrestrial lightning tends to happen in 
the afternoon. 


LAUREN E. JAMES, NGM STAFF. SOURCE: “WHERE ARE THE LIGHTNING HOTSPOTS ON EARTH?” 
RACHEL |. ALBRECHT AND OTHERS, BULLETIN OF THE AMERICAN METEOROLOGICAL SOCIETY (2016) 


PERSISTENCE VERSUS POWER 

Some areas in the southeastern United States — the 

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A SLEIGHFUL 
OF SANTAS, 
SURVEYED 


By Patricia Edmonds 


Take “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” 
multiply it by several hundred, and you’ve 
got what’s billed as the World’s Largest 
Santa Convention, held this past July in 
Branson, Missouri. At the five-day trade 
show, Kris Kringle impersonators attend- 
ed workshops on makeup and marketing, 
beard care and Santa ethics. More than 
550 Santas answered a survey about 
playing the jolly old elf. Here are some 
of the results. 





Average age: 63.5 years, with a youngest Santa of 29 and asenior Santa 
of 94. Average weight: 252 pounds, ranging from lightest Santa (130) 
to heaviest (450). Is that “bowl full of jelly” belly real? 78% said 
yes. Isthat your real beard? 93% said yes. Who has pulled your 
beard to be sure it’s real? 67% said mostly children; 25% said mostly 
adults. Do you dye, or don’t you? 49% claimed naturally white 
hair/beard; 40% said they bleach or lighten. Has a child on your 
lap ever wet on you? 31% said yes. Do you use an agent to help 
get Santa bookings? 24% said yes. Are youatech-savvy elf? 50% 
have a Facebook page as Santa; 44% have a Santa business website; 
24% said, “Iam lucky ifI can just use email.” Have you attendeda 
Santa school? 23% said no; the rest said they had attended at least 
one. Favorite cookie: chocolate chip, 44%; oatmeal raisin, 20%; 
sugar cookie, 9%. Favorite beverage: hot cocoa, 31%; milk, 25%; 
egenog, 20% (alcohol content not specified). Favorite Christmas 
song: “Santa Claus Is Coming to Town,” 21%; “Silent Night,” 18%; 
“Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer,” 14%. Least favorite Christmas 
song: “The Twelve Days of Christmas” and “Grandma Got Run Over 
by a Reindeer” finished in a virtual tie, with each song getting less 
than one percent of the vote. 


PHOTO: DINA LITOVSKY 


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EXPLORE | US 


SERVING UP 
JACKFRUIT 


By Stacie Stukin 


Spiky, gigantic, and fibrous, jackfruit 
may not seem particularly inviting. But 
the tropical fruit in its unripened state is 
gaining popularity in the United States 
as a sustainable substitute for meat. 

Twenty-five percent of U.S. consumers 
decreased their meat intake from 2014 to 
2015, according to the Nutrition Business 
Journal. And sales of meat alternatives 
have nearly doubled—from $69 million 
in 2011 to $109 million in 2015. 

That may explain why some chefs and 
food companies have begun promoting 
jackfruit. It has a texture (though nota 
protein content) like meat’s. It’s starchy 


and neutral tasting, so “you can do any- 
thing with it,” says chef Kajsa Alger, who 
cooks with it at her L.A. restaurant. 

It remains to be seen whether Ameri- 
cans will embrace this South Asian staple, 
which grows in abundance in its native 
India. For one thing, jackfruit—from the 
family that includes breadfruit, figs, and 
mulberries—oozes a sticky, white sub- 
stance when cut, and breaking one down 
takes time. “Basically, they’re big and 
uncooperative,” says Alger. 

But for those who would sample, there 
is ashortcut: The meaty fruit also comes 
prepackaged and in cans. 


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wee | 





PVSTeMc1e) o/oLe) au ba lcmelelucie-balebbelcapbebsleneclnees ae A110) dQ KO) improve Sives protect the 
planet, and advance human knowledge. On the following pages, we celebrate 16 
individuals who have been Rolex laureates or Geographic explorers—or both—for 
their vision and achievements. 


A program profiling Rolex laureates will air on National Geographic on November 18 at 7:30/6:30c. 


NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC PRODUCED THIS EXPANDED VERSION OF FIELD NOTES 
AS PART OF A PARTNERSHIP WITH THE ROLEX AWARDS FOR ENTERPRISE. 


PHOTO: MARK THIESSEN, NGM STAFF 





the Rolex Aware for E terprise se hat ar Testtctel | a paral lel mission: ider ine a Le 


Jupiter’s moon Europa. 


EXPLORE 


| FIELD NOTES 


Kakenya Ntaiya shares 
some candlelight learning 
time with students at the 
Kakenya Center for Ex- 
cellence. Ntaiya started 
the rural Kenyan boarding 
school in 2009 to help 
improve girls’ lives by 
extending their education. 
The first 26 will finish high 
school in 2017. 





EDUCATION WHERE 
IT WASN’T BEFORE 


Kakenya Ntalya 


Kakenya Ntaiya’s life was mapped out at 
an early age, as it is for many traditional 
Kenyan girls: a preordained engagement 
at age five, followed by genital mutilation 
at 14, which would mark the end of her 
formal education and lead to marriage. 
But she eventually persuaded her family 
and her village of Enoosaen to allow her 
to leave and get an education. 

After earning a Ph.D. in education 
from the University of Pittsburgh, Ntaiya 
decided to pay it forward. Since May 
2009, when she opened the Kakenya 
Center for Excellence, a girls boarding 
school in Enoosaen for fourth to eighth 
graders, nearly 280 girls have attend- 
ed. They gain knowledge and are en- 
couraged to break the cycle of cultural 
practices such as genital mutilation and 
early forced marriage. The first 26 will 
graduate from high school in 2017. 

“Every year we have over 200 girls 
wanting to come to the school, and 
we can only take 40. That’s what’s 
most frustrating,” says Ntaiya, a 2010 


National Geographic emerging explorer. 
Ntaiya hopes to raise five million dollars 
to expand, and to boost enrollment to 
600 girls by 2021. 


THE PLAN TO PRESERVE 
AN ANCIENT CAPITAL 


Talal Akasheh 


Talal Akasheh has 
devoted half his life 
to protecting the 
2,500-year-old Jor- 
danian city of Petra 
from the ravages of 
nature and neglect. 
And at a time when many of his peers 
have long since retired, AKkasheh, 69, 
remains dogged in his efforts to preserve 
the once thriving trade capital. 

The 2008 Rolex laureate, who trained 
as a chemist, created a research database 
on Petra, mapping and analyzing nearly 
3,000 archaeological features carved 
from red sandstone. Akasheh spent three 
years using photogrammetry to gauge 
the stability of rocks in the Siq, the main 
entrance to Petra. In 2015 he completed 
a conservation plan for the ancient city. 

There’s still time to conserve what’s 
standing for scholars, tourists, and pos- 
terity. But if parts of structures crumble, 
Akasheh’s database can provide refer- 
ences of how the originals looked. 





LOOKING FOR LIFE 
ON A FARAWAY MOON 


Kevin Hand 


The quest to find life on other planets has 
intrigued scientists for eons. Astrobiolo- 
gist Kevin Hand’s extraterrestrial search 
could be complete in less than 15 years. 
Hand (pictured on the previous page) 
is a2014 Rolex Awards juror and 2011 Na- 
tional Geographic emerging explorer. As 
a deputy project scientist at NASA's Jet 
Propulsion Laboratory, he oversees the 
development of a concept for a lander 
that will explore Jupiter’s moon Europa. 
His research has taken him from ocean 
floors to Antarctic glaciers, where he can 
study life in extreme environments, like 


PHOTOS: PHILIP SCOTT ANDREWS (LEFT); MARC LATZEL, ROLEX AWARDS 


those on Europa. With luck, Hand says, 
a launch could occur by 2024 and a ro- 
botic vehicle could touch down by 2030. 


A NEW RODENT, WITH 
AN INSPIRED NAME 


Erika Cuéllar 


Conservation biol- 
ogist Erika Cuéllar 
displayed such dedi- eee 
cationtoconservation A —™*. 

in the Gran Chaco,a | ii f » | i WT 
biodiverse regionin | 4 JHU 

South America, that 

her colleagues named a newly discovered 
type of rodent after her: Erika’s tuco-tuco, 
aka Ctenomys erikacuellarae. 

The gopher-like tuco-tuco is native 
to Bolivia. That’s where Cuellar, a 2012 
Rolex laureate and 2013 emerging ex- 
plorer, works to empower communities 
by helping locals acquire conservation 
Skills and expertise. 







THE SECRET SAUCE 
TO SAVE A CULTURE 


Ilse Kohler-Rollefson 


Got camel milk? 

It’s acentral ques- 
tion to Ilse Kohler- 
Rollefson, a 2002 
Rolex laureate ded- 
icated to preserving 
the camel-herding 
lifestyles of India’s Raika people. 

The nomadic pastoralists have herded 
camels in the remote regions of Rajas- 
than for centuries, but their way of life 
is threatened by disappearing grazing 
lands, mechanized farming, and falling 
demand for camels. Kohler-Rollefson 
believes camel milk—which some think 
has medicinal benefits for people with 
diabetes and children with autism—is 
Key to the survival of Raika culture. 

A veterinary surgeon, Kohler- 
Rollefson helped start a small camel- 
milk dairy that now produces about 150 
liters a week; she aims to boost that to 
300 liters a day to support new prod- 
uct development. She hopes to help the 





pastoralists market more cheese, soap, 
wool—even artisanal paper made from 
camel dung. 


ALONE ONA 
RUTHLESS MOUNTAIN 


Lonnie Dupre 


After three attempts 
failed because of se- 
vere weather, Lonnie 
Dupre in 2015 became 
the first mountaineer 
to complete a Janu- 
ary solo summit of Alaska’s Denali. 
Dupre, a 2004 Rolex laureate, is now 
planning another challenge: the first ever 
January solo ascent of Alaska’s Mount 
Hunter, considered among North Amer- 
ica’s most difficult climbs. With 30 years’ 
experience, he has his training regimen 
down to a science. But winnowing 19 
days of food and supplies to fit into a 
60-pound backpack is still daunting. 
“Fuel is the number one priority,” he says. 
You can go a little while without food, 
but only two to three days without water, 
and you need gas to melt snow.” He takes 
high-fat, high-protein fare such as dried 





PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT): LONNIE DUPRE; MARC LATZEL, 


ROLEX AWARDS; DIPTI DESAI; THIERRY GROBET, ROLEX AWARDS 





Veteran explorer Lonnie 
Dupre is accustomed to 
long, solitary nights in 
severe Arctic conditions. 
But a successful January 
solo ascent of Denali in 
Alaska came only after 
surviving a harrowing 
storm at 11,200 feet. 


EXPLORE 


| FIELD NOTES 


Rwanda’s gray crowned 
crane population dwin- 
dled to fewer than 500 
before veterinarian Olivier 
Nsengimana became 

a driving force to rescue 
and revitalize the en- 
dangered species, the 
target of poachers and 
traffickers. 








meats—and aluxury item: “The one thing 
I allow myself is a good cup of coffee.” 


USING COMIC BOOKS 


TO HELP PROTECT BIRDS 


Olivier Nsengimana 


To save Rwanda’s endangered gray 
crowned crane from extinction, vet- 
erinarian Olivier Nsengimana is using 
everything from comic books to high- 
tech drones. 

The comic books help educate 
Rwanda’s youth about conservation 
and biodiversity. Such awareness is 
vital in a country where scores of gray 
crowned cranes, chicks, and eggs have 
been poached from their marsh habitat 
and trafficked as symbols of wealth 
and longevity. 

Their global population is down nearly 
80 percent over the past five decades, 
and fewer than 500 remain in the wild 
in Rwanda. Nsengimana, a 2014 Rolex 
laureate, stepped in to stop the illegal 
trade, promote breeding, protect hab- 
itat, and return captive birds to the 
wild. So far, 216 captive cranes have 
been identified and registered; 98 have 


been reintroduced to Rwanda’s Akagera 
National Park. 


NUCLEAR ENERGY COMING 
TO THE 21ST CENTURY 


Leslie Dewan 


Nuclear power has 
been under a dark 
cloud in the Unit- 
ed States since the 
partial meltdown at 
Three Mile Island in 
1979. But Leslie De- 
wan, a nuclear engineer and 2015 Na- 
tional Geographic emerging explorer, 
believes a safe, next-generation nuclear 
reactor offers a brighter outlook. 

Dewan’s Boston area—based start- 
up, Transatomic Power, is developing 
a molten-salt reactor based on a 1960s 
design. In commercial use, the reactor 
would process and repurpose spent nu- 
clear fuel—the U.S. stockpile is 82,700 
tons—and produce enough energy to 
power the world for decades. 

Her goal is to have a prototype by the 
early 2020s and a commercial reactor 
by the 2030s. 





EAVESDROPPING ON 
OCEAN NOISE POLLUTION 


Michel André 


French bioacousti- 
cian and 2002 Rolex 
laureate Michel An- 
dré spent more than 
a decade developing 
the first passive whale 
anticollision system 
to prevent the sea mammals from col- 
liding with ships off the Canary Islands. 

Over the next 10 years, he helped build 
Listening to the Deep Ocean Environ- 
ment, a platform linking 22 major un- 
derwater observatories to create a global 
record of how human-caused ocean noise 
affects marine life’s ability to hunt, feed, 
and dwell in ocean waters. “Noise is con- 
sidered a form of pollution,” André says. 
“But unlike other sources of contamina- 
tion, it’s easier to solve.” 





PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT): THIERRY GROBET, ROLEX AWARDS; 
LYNN JOHNSON, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE; ERIC VANDEVILLE, ROLEX AWARDS 


DINOSAUR EDUCATION 
FOR ALL KIDS 


Bolortsetseg Minjin 


Bolortsetseg “Bolor” 
Minjin was one of 
Mongolia’s first wom- 
en to earn a Ph.D. in 
paleontology. Now 
the 2010 National 
Geographic emerging 
explorer is inspiring a new generation of 
fossil hunters. 

Mongolia’s Gobi desert is one of the 
world’s most diverse fossil areas. That’s 
because, in the past, it was a humid 
region with vast freshwater lakes and 
rivers, a paradise for plant life and di- 
nosaurs. Even so, few Mongolian kids 
today have the fascination for dinosaurs 
that kids elsewhere do, Bolor notes. 
“Dinosaurs are more of a mythical crea- 
ture to kids in my country because 
there have been no resources to learn 
about them.” 

In addition to a bus that now hosts a 
dinosaur exhibit, Bolor hopes to broaden 
educational outreach. She’s currently 
raising money to break ground in 2018 
on the first of several museums. 


BRINGING NATURE TO 
PRISON INMATES 


Nalini Nadkarni 


It’s a long way from 
Costa Rica’s rain 
forests to a Washing- 
ton State prison, but 
Nalini Nadkarni is 
comfortable in both. 
The field biologist 
has spent much of her career studying 
plant life dwelling in the forest canopy. 
Her penchant for scaling 200-foot-tall 
ceiba trees once spurred her to develop 
a Treetop Barbie doll. But after years 
of fieldwork, she turned to developing 
nature programs for prison inmates 
while teaching at Washington’s Ever- 
green State College. Her Sustainability 
in Prisons Project has since spread to 
several states. 








Nadkarni, a National Geographic 
grantee and University of Utah biology 
professor, has also spread her gospel 
about nature to minority groups and 
faith congregations. “Rather than saying, 
“You need to read my articles or attend 
my lectures to understand my science, ” 
she says that she prefers “appealing to 
people in their own venues.” 


THE LESSONS EARLY 
HUMANS STILL TEACH 


David Lordkipanidze 


Scientists found 
1.8-million-year-old 
fossils in Dmani- 
Si, Georgia, more 
than 25 years ago. 
Today evidence 


PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP RIGHT): MARCO GROB; IRA KURMAEVA; LAWRENCE BOYE, 
UNIVERSITY OF UTAH/NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE; MARK THIESSEN, NGM STAFF 








EXPLORE 


Rolex was an early sup- 
porter of anthropologist 
Johan Reinhard, a long- 
time National Geographic 
explorer-in-residence. 

In 1999 Reinhard’s team 


made a historic discovery: 


the 500-year-old frozen 
remains of a teenage girl 
sacrificed to Inca gods 
atop Argentina’s Volcan 
Llullaillaco. 


| FIELD NOTES 





is still emerging of the earliest 
known human ancestors to venture 
outside Africa. 

David Lordkipanidze, a paleoanthro- 
pologist and 2004 Rolex laureate, headed 
the 1991 excavation of the Dmanisi site, 
which led to the theory that all early 
Homo fossils belong to the same species. 

As head of the Georgian State Muse- 
um in nearby Tbilisi, he still visits the 
site at least twice each week. “I couldn't 
imagine my life without this place,” 
he says. Teams have excavated 5,980 
square yards, just 10 percent of the ex- 
plorable site. 


SAFE PLACES FOR SHARKS 
AND FISH TO HANG OUT 


Barbara Block 


Using cutting-edge 
technology to mon- 
itor the movements 
of sharks, billfish, and 
bluefin tuna, marine 
biologist Barbara 





Block has developed a trove of informa- 
tion on the secret lives of ocean predators. 
As co-chief scientist for the Census of 
Marine Life’s Tagging of Pacific Predators 
project, Block helped identify several 
marine hot spots—hunting grounds 
where predators find abundant krill, 
sardines, squid, anchovies, and salmon. 
One of these hot spots, now California’s 
Monterey Bay National Marine Sanctu- 
ary, is featured in Block’s 2016 science 
documentary, Blue Serengeti. 

Like land-based parks, Block says, 
these areas need conservation and pro- 
tection so they can continue to foster 
the diversity of species. “What we’ve 
found is that, like clockwork, they come 
back to the same neighborhood,” says 
the 2012 Rolex laureate, who is trying to 
raise funds to develop antipoaching tags 
for vulnerable marine species. 

“The biggest problem is unregulated 
and illegal fishing,” Block points out. 
“We're only just getting a handle on it 
through technology.” 


TRACKING BATS WITHOUT 
THEM KNOWING 


Winifred Frick 


After earning a de- 
gree in environmen- 
tal studies, Winifred 
Frick was waiting 
to begin graduate 
school when she met 
her future husband, 
bat biologist Paul Heady. “I fell in love 
with him and bats at the same time,’ says 
Frick, a National Geographic grantee. 
In the years since, she has studied bat 
ecology and conservation witha focus on 
white-nose syndrome, a fungal disease 
of bats that has devastated hibernating 
colonies in North America. 

This spring, Frick, senior director of 
conservation science for Texas-based 
Bat Conservation International, will 
begin a yearlong study of the migration 
patterns of the lesser long-nosed bat in 
Mexico’s Baja Peninsula. She aims to col- 
lar 50 bats with GPS transmitters, which 
will yield detailed tracking data when 
the bats return to their caves in 2018. 





PHOTOS (CLOCKWISE FROM TOP LEFT): JOHAN REINHARD; 
WINIFRED FRICK; BART MICHIELS, ROLEX AWARDS 


BOO DS LN eo GS OULD Ee. IPN Aout Il ees OR 


= 
aa 
' 


x £ 


Mei 


GLOBAL MINISERIES EVENT 


FRIDAYS 9/8c 
PREMIERES NOV 25 


L WILD 


WildSavageKingdom.com 


© 2016 National Geographic Partners, LLC. Nat Geo WILD and the Yellow Border design are trademarks of National Geographic Society; used with permission. 


S 





E 


WOTIG DE 


EVENTS & OPPORTUNITIES e ADVERTISING & PROMOTIONS 





STATEMENT OF OWNERSHIP, MANAGEMENT, 
AND MONTHLY CIRCULATION OF 





















CANON IMAGING PLAZA 
NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC 
: i OWNER AND PUBLISHER: National Geographic Partners, LLC 
Canon offers the Canon Imaging Plaza YouTube channel | REL aN GRE. CEO 
as a resource for photo enthusiasts to learn more about SUSAN GOLDBERG, Editor in Chief 
digital photography, Canon products, and the fun and joy of ia cos hk cea ase haba eldedek 
. . : . as 1145 SEVENTEENTH STREET N.W., WASHINGTON, DC 20036 
capturing images and videos with a digital camera. Canon | STOCKHOLDERS; BONDHOLDERS; MORTGAGE; 
believes that dedicated digital cameras provide users with OTHER SECURITY HOLDERS: National Geographic Society and 21st Century Fox 
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COPIES EACH ISSUE DURING NEAREST TO 
Learn more at PRECEDING 12 MOS. FILING DATE 
youtube.com/user/canonimagingplaza A. TOTAL COPIES PRINTED Oct. 2015-Sept. 2016 September 2016 
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B. PAID CIRCULATION 
1. Outside-County Mail Subscriptions 2,676,542 2,694,159 
2. In-County Mail Subscriptions - 7 
3. Single-Copy Sales/Non-USPS Paid Distribution 886,212 851,930 
4. Other Classes Mailed Through USPS = - 
C. TOTAL PAID CIRCULATION 3,562,754 3,546,089 
D. FREE DISTRIBUTION (Includes samples, no news agents) 
1. Outside-County 63,784 59,207 
2. In-County - - 
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E. TOTAL FREE DISTRIBUTION 67,391 62,323 
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H. TOTAL (Sum of F and G) 3,908,085 3,860,105 
|. PERCENT PAID 98% 98% 
KENNEDY SPACE CENTER 
VISITOR COMPLE 


Kennedy Space Center Visitor Complex™ is 
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EXPLORE | 


BASIC INSTINCTS 


ROMANTIC 
ATTACHMENT 





By Patricia Edmonds 


Keeping your mate extraordinarily 
close—as in permanently fused to your 
body—has its advantages. 

A mile or more down in the lightless 
ocean, deep-sea anglerfish search for 
partners. The 162 species of this Ceratioid 
suborder form odd couples: The males 
are dwarfed, the females many times 
larger (some three feet long). Yet they’re 
uniquely equipped to find each other. 

The male’s outsize nostrils pick up 
the female’s waterborne pheromones. 
His well-developed eyes search for a 
spot of light: the bioluminescent lure 
on a stalk adorning the female’s brow. 
Ted Pietsch, a University of Washington 
ichthyologist, says the lures’ different 
shapes, pigment patterns, and flash 
patterns tell a male when he’s found a 
female of his species to hook up with. 

“Hook up” is putting it mildly. Rather 


than risk separation from his mate inthe 
vast dark, the male clamps his teeth onto 
some part of her and stays put. “Eventu- 
ally the skin of male and female grows 
together,” Pietsch says; vessels join “so 
her blood flows through his body.” Fins 
and other disused body parts wither away 
until the male is only what the female 
needs him to be: a sperm factory. 

This sexual parasitism bears fruit. 
When the female’s eggs are ready, she 
signals the male. As he releases sperm, 
she releases a gelatinous egg mass that 
expands in water, absorbing the sperm. 

The buoyant mass of fertilized eggs 
slowly rises to the ocean’s upper reach- 
es. There the larvae hatch and fatten 
on plankton. As they start to mature, 
Pietsch says, the anglerfish will make 
“the great vertical migration” back to 
the dark deep to find mates of their own. 






CERATIOID 
ANGLERFISH 


HABITAT/RANGE 
Deep waters 
of every ocean 


CONSERVATION STATUS 
For most species, too 
little data to assess risk 


OTHER FACTS 

Like this Haplophryne 
mollis (above), some 

Ka) aateliesom alc\Viom sale)acmualclal 
(o)atemaatclicmslutc\eval=\o mm Maly 
known record is eight. 


PHOTO: PETER DAVID, GETTY IMAGES 





STARTALK | 


WITH NEIL DEGRASSE TYSON 


Geek in Space 


Why did we dress author Andy Weir, the guy who wrote The Martian, 
in a space suit that actor Matt Damon wore in the movie? To celebrate 
a launch. This is the debut of a recurring Q&A with astrophysicist 
Neil deGrasse Tyson, drawn from interviews for his StarTalk podcast 
and television show. The first guest: self-described science geek Weir. 


Neil deGrasse Tyson: So Andy, were 
you a geeky kid? I have to ask. 

Andy Weir: Well, of course I was a geeky 
kid! Do I look like someone who wasn’t? 


NT: Does that mean you did well in your 
science and math classes? Were you 
abused for that? 

AW: Yes, absolutely. Although I’m not 
sure if I was abused for being good at sci- 
ence or because I’m an inveterate smart- 
ass. Probably more the latter. 


NT: So, college: What’d you major in? 
AW: Computer science and engineering. 


NT: Am I correct in supposing that your 
English teachers would’ve never said, 
“Oh, he’ll be a great novelist one day”? 

AW: Yeah, I think my English teachers 
would agree I'd make a great mathema- 
tician someday. I’d always wanted to be 
a writer, even when I was in high school. 
But I also liked eating regular meals, and 
so when the time came to choose a ca- 
reer, I went with software engineering. 


NT: How did writing The Martian begin? 
AW: In 1999, I was working for AOL, and 
I got laid off when they merged with 
Netscape. I had a bunch of money in 
stock options, so I took three years off. 
I wrote a book, it did not get published, 
and I just decided writing is going to be 
my hobby. So I set up a web page, wrote 
short stories and serials—and The Mar- 
tian was one of those serials. It did really 
well, which led me to self-publish it to 
Amazon. It made it into the top sellers, 


PHOTOS: DAN WINTERS 
THIS INTERVIEW WAS EDITED FOR LENGTH AND CLARITY. 


that got the attention of Random House, 
and they offered me a book deal. It was 
like all my dreams coming true. 

While I was writing the book, anytime 
I was tempted to take a shortcut and have 
unrealistic science or physics, I’d say, 
“What if Neil deGrasse Tyson reads this? 
He will notice, and he will point it out.” 


NT: I don’t Know if ’m happy or sad that 
that was your mental state at the time. 
In The Martian all we care about is 
whether the main character survives 
on his scientific wit. I don’t care about 
interpersonal relationships. I don’t care 
if his parents are alive or dead, if he’s 
married, has kids. I just care if the stuff 
he’s figuring out is going to work. And 
he’s tapping science, technology, engi- 
neering, and math: all the STEM fields. 
That may be without precedent. 
AW: Well, see, no one would accuse The 
Martian of being literature, right? The 
main character, Mark Watney, is exactly 
the same at the end of the story as he is 
at the beginning. He doesn’t undergo 
any change—no personality crisis, no 
nothing. And I don’t feel bad about that. 
I’m completely unrepentant. 


NT: So at no time are you developing 
the character? 

AW: Never. 

NT: Could you have invented a new 
genre here? 

AW: I’ve heard people describe it as 
competence porn. 


NT: What I liked about the film was that 





Neil deGrasse Tyson 





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deciding where my oe 


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chose places that | felt 
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do in my lifetime— 

Xe | fot-] X= of-To) 9) (-B-Vae. 


illuminate issues. 


— Barbara Flowers, who included 
the National Geographic Society 
in her estate plans. 


Giles 70 IE eG sieve (Oy SO) UI Owe N 


el Yes! Please send me information on how to include Name 


a | 


the National Geographic Society in my will. Address 


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a gift. Please call me. Mail to National Geographic Society 
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Our federal tax ID number is 53-0193519. Toll free: (800) 226-4438 16PGFC12B 


STARTALK 


for the first time in my life experience, 
looking at storytelling in film, science 
was a character unto itself. 

AW: That was part of the goal. I didn’t set 
out to say, “People need to understand 
science more.” I was just like, “This is 
really cool to me. I want other people to 
feel that feeling.” 


NT: The movie takes place in 2035. 
That’s not a random time, presumably. 
AW: No. I calculated all the orbital trajec- 
tories that the spacecraft Hermes has to 
take to get from Earth to Mars and back, 
based on an ion propulsion drive that 
can provide a constant two millimeters 
per second per second [mm/s?] acceler- 
ation—which, as I’m sure you Know, is 
way more than we can do right now. 


NT: These are real launch windows if we 
were actually to do this? So you have far 
more accurate information in this story 
than most people will ever know. 

AW: Yes. And in fact, some orbital dy- 
namicists actually double-checked my 
calculations, and I was only off by about 
2 percent. That’s pretty big when you’re 
talking about interplanetary stuff... 


NT: But for fiction purposes... 
AW: It will do. 


NT: Right. So now you're on Mars. Do 
you say, “I have to invent some non- 
realistic stuff to tell my story. I did 
everything else right, now give me some 
latitude”? You know what scene I’m 
thinking of in particular. 

AW: You're talking about the sandstorm. 


NT: The dust storm. It’s never a sand- 
storm, because the air is not thick 
enough to carry sand. 

AW: Right. 


NT: For those who might have not seen 
the film: You have a spaceship that 
wants to take off, and there’s a dust 
storm—very common on Mars—whose 
pressure is so great that it’s tipping the 
spaceship. But the Martian atmosphere 
is so thin, and the mass of dust that it 
carries is so low, that a dust storm can’t 
tip over a spaceship. 


AW: It cannot possibly. It could barely 
tip over a piece of paper. 


NT: And I’ve defended you, by the way. 
I’ve said, “Look, he needs it to tell the 
story. At least he got the fact that Mars 
has dust storms.” 

AW: Before I had the dust storm, I hada 
different idea, but this is a man-versus- 
nature story, so I wanted nature to get 
the first punch in. That was the most fun 
part: coming up with stuff to throw at 
him and figuring out how he’d solve it. 


NT: Did you feel at any point in the nov- 
el, “OK, this will actually kill him”? 

AW: Oh sure. There were lots of places 
where I came up with a problem that was 
So severe there was no way for him to 
survive. In those cases, I would either 
give him some piece of technology that 
enables him to solve the problem or I’d 
just have that problem not occur. 


NT: For me it didn’t matter whether 
I knew he was going to die or not. I’m 
invested in, Can he solve this problem? 
AW: That’s because you're a geek, like me. 
It would’ve been a helluva shock if he 
had died at the end, right? It’s like a 
James Bond movie: He’s in constant life- 
threatening peril, but you don’t actually 
think he’s going to die. You're really just 
curious how he doesn’t die. 

NT: Exactly. 


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surround Andy Weir ina 
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Los Angeles. 


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At the University of Florida, Parkinson’s 
disease patient Russell Price undergoes 
surgery to implant a microelectrode that 
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result would be due to the treatment and 
how much to the placebo effect. “The line 
oX=yANici-aMaasy-l tenis) almrs [ace me) t-lexselem we) (Ulaa(-le 
than ever,” says neurologist Michael Okun. 


PHOTOGRAPHED AT McKNIGHT BRAIN INSTITUTE, 
UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 


Youre notjust 
what you eat, 
or do, or think. 
NOURI AIL 
you believe. 








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with patients in its medical facility. 





By Erik Vance 
Photographs by Erika Larsen 


The pilgrim wasn’t sure he’d make it to the 
Chapel of Grace. It was agony to walk at all, let 
alone endure the 70 miles that thousands of 
believers trek each year to behold an enshrined 
wood statue: the Black Madonna of Altotting. 


Richard Modl had recently broken his heel, 
but in 2003 he was determined to complete his 
first pilgrimage from Regensburg to Altotting, 
Germany. He figured if the pain got too bad he 
could always hitch a ride. But he had a deep 
faith in the Virgin Mary’s ability to deliver him. 
So he walked. And walked. “When you are on 
your way to Altotting, you almost don’t feel the 
pain,” he says. 

Today, at 74, Modl has a warm smile and a wiry 
frame that looks as if it could survive a charging 
rhinoceros. Since the healing of his foot, he’s 
made the pilgrimage 12 more times, and he’s a 
passionate believer in its transformative power. 

Médd1 is not alone in his belief. Whether it takes 





34 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC « DECEMBER 2016 


the form of a touch of the Holy Spirit at a Flor- 
ida revival meeting or a dip in the water of the 
Ganges, the healing power of belief is all around 
us. Studies suggest that regular religious ser- 
vices may improve the immune system, decrease 
blood pressure, add years to our lives. 

Religious faith is hardly the only kind of be- 
lief that has the ability to make us feel inexpli- 
cably better. Six thousand miles from Altotting, 
another man experienced what seemed to be a 
medical miracle. 

Mike Pauletich first noticed he had a problem 
in 2004. His aim with a baseball was off, and his 
arm hurt. His hand shook a little, and, strangest 
of all, his wife noticed he never smiled anymore. 

Figuring he had carpal tunnel syndrome, he 
went to the doctor. But his bad aim wasn’t be- 
cause of his arm, and the reason he wasn’t smil- 
ing wasn’t because his arm hurt. At 42 years old, 
Pauletich had early onset Parkinson’s disease. 
His doctor told him that within a decade he 
wouldn't be able to walk, stand, or feed himself. 

Pauletich didn’t deteriorate as much as his 
doctor predicted, but for years he struggled with 
the disease and with depression, as talking and 
writing became ever harder. Then, in 2011, he 
turned to Ceregene, a company that was testing 


Maximillian Klement (left) and Benedikt Braun, 18 
and 21, carry a statue of the Virgin Mary during an 
annual pilgrimage in Germany to the Shrine of Our 
Lady of Altotting, where healing rituals have taken 
place since medieval times. In Siena, Italy, at the 
Basilica Cateriniana San Domenico, the shrine of 
St. Catherine, which includes her mummified head 
(opposite), beckons to Roman Catholic pilgrims 
seeking cures. “If you have doubt,” says local guide 
Chiara Biccellari, “you will receive nothing.” 


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Tiny cues as we walk 
into a hospital—many 

of which are experienced 
unconsciously—trigger 
responses in our bodies. 


a new gene therapy. Parkinson’s is the result ofa 
chronic loss of the neurotransmitter dopamine. 
It had been shown in monkeys that injections of 
a protein called neurturin could halt the prog- 
ress of the disease by protecting and possibly re- 
pairing damaged dopamine-secreting neurons. 
Ceregene’s experimental treatment was to cut 
two holes, one in each hemisphere of the brain, 
through a patient’s skull and inject the drug di- 
rectly into the target regions. 

Pauletich’s improvement after the surgery was 
impressive. Before the trial he had struggled to 
move around. He had to constantly explain to 
clients of his technology development company 
that his slurred speech wasn’t caused by drink- 
ing. After the procedure his shaking disappeared, 
his mobility improved, and his speech became 
markedly clearer. (Today you can hardly tell he 
has the disease at all.) His doctor on the study, 
Kathleen Poston, was astonished. Strictly speak- 
ing, Parkinson’s had never been reversed in 
humans; the best one could hope for was a slow- 
down in the progression of the disease, and even 
that was extremely rare. 

In April 2013, Ceregene announced the results 
of the trial: Neurturin had failed. Patients who 
had been treated with the drug did not improve 
any more significantly than those in a control 
group who had received a placebo treatment—a 
sham surgery in which a doctor drilled “divots” 
into the patient’s skull so that it would feel as 
if there had been an operation. Ceregene was 
bought by another company in 2013, and its 
work on neurturin for Parkinson’s has not been 
continued. 

Poston was crushed. But then she looked at 
the data and noticed something that stopped 


38 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC « DECEMBER 2016 


her cold. Mike Pauletich hadn't gotten the real 
surgery. He had gotten the placebo. 


IN A SENSE both Pauletich and Modl partici- 
pated in a performance, one that we humans 
have been engaging in for thousands of years, 
every time we go to healers with the hope that 
they can make us feel better. And just as a good 
performance in a theater can draw us in until we 
feel we’re watching something real, the theater 
of healing is designed to draw us in by creating 
powerful expectations in our brains. These ex- 
pectations drive the so-called placebo effect, 
which can affect what happens in our bodies as 
well. Scientists have known about the placebo 
effect for decades and have used it as a control 
in drug trials. Now they are seeing placebos as 
a window into the neurochemical mechanisms 
that connect the mind with the body, belief with 
experience. 

How does a belief become so potent it can heal? 
Back to the theater: A crucial part of an inspiring 
performance is sets and costumes. When Paule- 
tich experienced improvement in his symptoms, 
it wasn’t just because of the divots he could feel 
in his head or what the doctors told him about 
surgery. It was the whole scene he’d experienced: 
the doctors in their white coats, stethoscopes 





PET scans show nearly equal amounts of 
dopamine released in the brain of a Parkinson’s 
patient when the drug L-dopa was administered 
(left) and when the same patient took an inert 
pill, or placebo, after being told there was a 

75 percent chance the pill would be L-dopa. 
Expectations triggered by placebos are espe- 
cially effective with nervous system disorders. 


SARAH LIDSTONE, UNIVERSITY OF BRITISH COLUMBIA 





around their necks; the nurses, checkups, tests, 
maybe even the bad music in the hospital waiting 
room. Physicians sometimes call these trappings 
around hospitals the theater of medicine. 

This stagecraft extends to many aspects of 
treatment and can operate on a subconscious 
level. Expensive placebos work better than 
cheap ones. Placebos in brand-name contain- 
ers work better than those labeled generics. 
Placebo suppositories work better in France, 
while the English prefer to swallow their place- 
bos. Often fake injections work better than fake 
pills. But fake surgeries seem to be the most 
powerful of all. 

Most astonishingly, placebos can work even 
when the person taking them Knows they are 
placebos. This was reported in a now classic 2010 
paper published by Ted Kaptchuk, a researcher 
at Harvard Medical School, and his team. After 
21 days of taking a placebo, people with irritable 


Mike Pauletich, during a trial at Stanford 
University, believed he had surgery to alleviate 
Parkinson’s symptoms. In fact he’d received 

a sham surgery — but he did feel significant relief. 
“Whether it was placebo or some effect of 

a drug,” he says, “it doesn’t matter to me.” 


bowel syndrome felt markedly better when com- 
pared with people who received nothing, even 
though those who reported feeling relief were 
told beforehand (and reminded afterward) that 
they were receiving placebos. 

The experiment showed that a supportive 
patient-practitioner relationship was Key in cre- 
ating belief in a successful outcome. Patients 
were educated about the power of placebos and 
positive attitude. They were told that the place- 
bo pills had been shown, in rigorous clinical test- 
ing, to induce meaningful self-healing processes. 
They were instructed to (Continued on page 48) 


MIND OVER MATTER 39 















While Russell Price remains awake, doctors 
Taksx)a arc maalcergey=y(sveddaece(-Blamalcecy .cUlimaucsyie)iomial 

CT scan, right) that will deliver DBS to the brain 
regions where Parkinson’s creates such debilitat- 
Take R=y'40n) o)Xe)aatcw- low ta) ance) smug le lol invam (es-\-me) ml el-l(-lalerom 
and slowed movement. Price’s wife says his 
speech is better. His tremors have lessened, 

and he feels like a different person. 

LEFT: PHOTOGRAPHED AT McKNIGHT BRAIN INSTITUTE. 


RIGHT: PHOTOGRAPHED BY MAX AGUILERA-HELLWEG FROM A CT 
IMAGE PROVIDED BY KELLY FOOTE, UNIVERSITY OF FLORIDA 


Va 





Pathways Expectations and conditioning from past experiences continue to shape how 
we feel pain. For some, a strong belief that a treatment will heal an ailment can 


of Pain and prompt the brain to tap into its own pharmacy, flooding the nervous system 
with medicating neurotransmitters and hormones. This is the placebo effect. 

Placebo Its inverse, the nocebo effect, can be activated if a patient anticipates a negative 
experience; this expectation can cause pain to increase. 


PAIN 
From the body to the brain 


A painful sensation travels from 

the site of injury in the body through 
the peripheral nervous system 

and along the spinal cord to reach 
the brain. 






PAIN 


The memory of pain 

The past informs how the brain and body 
respond to future pain and treatment. 
These physiological memories of pain 
guide placebo and nocebo effects. 


RELIEF 
From the brain to the body 


Pharmaceutical treatments trigger the 
brain to release hormones and neuro- 
transmitters into the central nervous 
system, modulating the pain signal. 


TREATMENT 





The brain’s 
apothecary 


Neurotransmitters and hormones 
regulate many body functions. They 
also play roles in placebo and nocebo 
responses by blocking, amplifying, or 
diminishing signals that instruct our 
minds how to react to outside stimuli. 


Opioids 

Endorphins, the body’s 
natural opioids, attach 

to the same receptors 

as synthetic painkillers, 
modulating sensations like 
pain, hunger, and thirst. 


42 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC « DECEMBER 2016 


Endocannabinoids 

The endocannabinoid system 
connects the body with the part 
of the brain that controls mood, 
appetite, and pain. Some 
internal cannabinoids are 
similar to THC in marijuana. 


The placebo effect 

The expectation of pain relief with 
treatment can create a placebo effect, 
activating a neurochemical response 
that intercepts and inhibits pain. 


An expectation of pain relief 
from treatment is processed 
by the prefrontal cortex and 
other cortical regions. 


Expectation 
of treatment 


The nocebo effect 


The part of the brain associated with 
memory and anxiety can cause more 


intense pain. The physiological processes 


of anocebo effect are less understood 
because they are ethically difficult to test. 


Dopamine 

Placebos can cause the 
release of dopamine in 

the brain; it regulates desire, 
pleasure, and reward. When 
anocebo effect kicks in, 
dopamine is deactivated. 


JASON TREAT, NGM STAFF; KELSEY NOWAKOWSKI 


ART: STUDIO MUTI. SOURCES: IRENE TRACEY, UNIVERSITY 
OF OXFORD; FABRIZIO BENEDETTI, UNIVERSITY OF TURIN 


x ft 
\ 
(; \ * | - 
alii ALD | iG 
= "i \, | | / j 
\ e : ‘ 1 | | / ra 
~¥ Anterior \ | IG 
~~. cingulate TTA eee 
; Cortex _ Thalamus- 
Prefrontal 
cortex 









Hypothalamus 


ee 


Amygdala _ Periaqueductal 
gray matter 

Rostral 

ventromedial 
medulla 





Spinal 
cord 


Dorsal 
horn 


Prostaglandins 

In high-altitude headaches, 
prostaglandins dilate blood 
vessels in the brain to induce 
pain. This response falls 
during a placebo effect 

and rises with nocebo. 


Response 
relayed to other 
parts of the brain 


P| 
i 
é 


a 
Pi 


2. Response 

The expectation of relief 

sends signals from the cortices 
to the brain stem to release 
neurochemicals, such as 
opioids, to counter the pain 
signals traveling to the brain. 


Placebo- 
modulated 
pain response 


3. Regulation 

Released neurochemicals 
meet the pain signal at the 
dorsal horn in the spinal cord, 
reducing its intensity. The 
thalamus relays this response 
to other parts of the brain. 


Pain signal 
from body 


CCK 

Released by anxiety, 
cholecystokinin can work 
against the ameliorating 
effect of opioids —a 
nocebo effect that 
increases pain. 


MIND OVER MATTER 43 








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A separate network of 
brain activity kicks in 
when conventional 
placebos are enhanced 
by peer pressure. 


(Continued from page 39) take the pills faithful- 
ly, missing no doses. 

“Dealing with expectation is very tricky,” says 
Kaptchuk, who has spent his life studying pla- 
cebo effects. “We’re dealing with very imprecise 
measuring of a very imprecise phenomenon. 
And a lot of it’s nonconscious.” 

Karin Jensen, one of Kaptchuk’s former col- 
leagues who now runs her own lab at the Karo- 
linsKa Institute in Stockholm, Sweden, designed 
an experiment to determine whether it was pos- 
sible to use subliminal cues to condition subjects 
to experience a placebo effect. 

During the conditioning phase of the exper- 
iment, subjects viewed alternating faces on a 
screen. Jensen used faces in her experiment be- 
cause our brains are particularly adept at quick- 
ly recognizing them. Half the subjects received 
subliminal cues: The faces appeared for just a 
fraction of a second—not long enough to con- 
sciously tell them apart. For the other subjects, 
the facial cues appeared long enough for them to 
be consciously recognized. 

During this first phase, varying heat stimuli 
were delivered to the subjects’ arms along with 
the facial cues: more heat with the first face, less 
heat with the second. In the testing phase that 
followed, the subjects, including those who saw 
only the quick-flash subliminal cues, reported 
feeling more pain when they saw the first face, al- 
though the heat stimuli remained moderate and 
identical for both faces. The subjects had thus 
developed an unconscious link between greater 
pain and the first face. 


Reporting for this story was supported by 
a grant from the Pulitzer Center. 


48 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC « DECEMBER 2016 


The experiment showed that a placebo re- 
sponse can be conditioned subliminally. Jen- 
sen points out that tiny cues as you walk into 
a hospital—many of which are experienced 
unconsciously—trigger responses in our bod- 
ies in a similar way. “Part of healing is noncon- 
scious—something that happens instinctually,” 
she says. 


HOSPITALS ARE JUST one common venue for 
the theater of belief. There are hundreds of al- 
ternative medical treatments that harness our 
expectations—homeopathy, acupuncture, tra- 
ditional Chinese medicines, urine therapy, cow 
dung tablets, human blood facials, vitamin in- 
fusions, sound healing, to name a few—all with 
varying levels of proven efficacy. 

“Belief is natural. It comes partly from the 
way our minds are hardwired,” says Tanya Luhr- 
mann, an anthropologist at Stanford University 
who has dedicated much of her professional life 
to understanding people’s interactions with God. 

She says that belief-based healing requires 
not only a good story but also the effort of an 
active listener—one with the ability to make 
what is imagined feel real. When story and 
imagination sync, the results can be astound- 
ing. “Humans have the capacity to change their 
experience,” she says. “These are skills, and we 
can learn them.” 

I’d heard of the belief-based healing of the 
brujos, or witch doctors, of Catemaco, in the 
state of Veracruz on the eastern coast of Mex- 
ico. They are particularly theatrical healers, 
blending shamanistic traditions with Roman 
Catholicism much as Christians did a thou- 
sand years ago. I’d heard stories of massive, 
pentagram-shaped bonfires and dancing mad- 
men who spit all over you as a blessing. Certain- 
ly worth a visit. 

But when I arrived in Catemaco and made 
my way to a modern brujo’s office, I found no 
fires or whooping shamans. Far from the dark, 
bat-infested cave I’d expected, the waiting area 
turned out to be a tidy little living room that 
smelled of disinfectant. Plastic amulets and 
glass crystals lined the shelves. About 10 people 


sat in chairs, reading magazines or watching 
soccer on TV. As witch doctors go, the brujo 
who greeted me looked more doctor than witch. 
Dressed all in white, he sported a neat mustache 
and short, heavily gelled hair. Half his office was 
taken up by an altar packed with crucifixes, stat- 
ues of saints, flowers, and hundreds of blinking, 
colored lights. 

I’d come for a simple limpia—a cleansing of 
my spirit. The brujo grabbed an egg, a few sprigs 
of basil, and a couple of plastic squirt bottles 
filled with what he said were envy blockers, 
bad-energy protection, and a liquid that makes 
wealth. Everything was orderly and sanitized. Af- 
ter a short interview, he got down to the business 
of my spirit, squirting me liberally with pungent 
oils and rubbing an egg over my body before 
cracking it open into a glass of water and exam- 
ining the contents. 

I was familiar with this routine—it’s common 
among brujos in Mexico. What surprised me 
was the lack of pomp or mumbo jumbo. It was 
more clinical than ceremonial. The brujo asked 
about my knees and lower back (both fine) and 
informed me that the egg indicated I might be 
in for some pain in the future. Like a radiologist 
explaining features on an x-ray, he noted sever- 
al bubbles around the egg white in the glass: a 
sign that someone close to me was jealous and 
wished me ill. Then he offered, for an extra fee, 
to protect me from future harm. I declined; we 
shook hands. I left feeling a sense of anticlimax, 
as if I had somehow missed something. Where 
was the theater? 

It was only when I was back on the street that 
I began to understand. Twenty years ago you 
could still find “authentic” dancing, spitting 
witch doctors in Catemaco (and they still show 
up for tourists and festivals). But expectation is 
a moving target. Over the past generation, con- 
ventional medicine has become the norm in 
Catemaco. Spitting and waving chicken feath- 
ers inspired confidence before, but most brujos 
today have adapted to the times, mixing white 
lab coats and antiseptic spray with their mysti- 
cism to tap into their modern patients’ expecta- 
tions: the theater of medicine. My brujo made 


eye contact and smiled warmly, like a skillful, 
caring medical doctor. 
And I have to say, I did feel a little better. 


SO HOW DOES THE THEATER Of medicine actu- 
ally work? How does a belief literally heal? 

One part of the puzzle involves conditioning, 
as Jensen has shown. Recall Pavlov’s dog, which 
drooled every time it heard a bell. That hap- 
pened because Pavlov conditioned the animal 
to connect food with the sound. Scientists have 
been able to train the immune systems of rats by 
pairing sweet liquids with cyclosporine A, a drug 
that blocks the function of immune cells to keep 
patients from rejecting transplanted organs. Ev- 
ery time the rat has a sweet drink, it also gets the 
drug. But after enough trials, the drug is unnec- 
essary: The sweet drink alone is enough to shut 
down the rat’s immune response. 

The placebo effect’s conditioned response in 
reaction to pain is to release brain chemicals— 
endorphins, or opium-like painkillers—synthe- 
sized in the body. In the 1970s two San Francisco 
neuroscientists interested in how those internal 
opioids control pain made a discovery during an 
experiment with patients who had just had their 
wisdom teeth pulled. 

The researchers first compared the response 
of a placebo group to the response of another 
group that received naloxone, a drug that can- 
cels out the ameliorating effect of opioids. None 
of the subjects received or expected to receive 
morphine—and all of them felt miserable. Then 
the scientists redesigned the experiment, telling 
the patients that some of them would receive 
morphine, some a placebo, and some naloxone. 
No one, including the researchers, knew who 
would receive what. This time, some of the pa- 
tients felt better, even though they didn’t receive 
morphine. Their expectation of potential relief 
triggered the release of endorphins in their bod- 
ies, and those endorphins reduced the pain. But 
as soon as they got naloxone, they were in pain 
again. The drug wiped out the action of the en- 
dorphins that the placebo response had released. 

“Without the expectation of pain relief, you 
can’t have a placebo effect,” says Howard Fields, 


MIND OVER MATTER 49 





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another trigger of the mysterious effect: how we 
think others experience pain. In this experiment, 
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stimulus as stronger when it was paired with an 
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We don’t imagine we’re not 
in pain. We self-medicate, 
literally, by expecting 

the relief we’ve been 
conditioned to receive. 


an emeritus professor at the University of Cali- 
fornia, San Francisco and one of the authors of 
the study. 

Since that experiment, conditioning has been 
used to study the effects of belief on the release 
of other drugs produced by the body, including 
serotonin, dopamine, and some cannabinoids, 
which can work in a way similar to the psycho- 
active ingredient in marijuana. But it wasn’t 
until the early 2000s that scientists could watch 
how these effects play out in the brain. Tor Wa- 
ger, then a Ph.D. student at the University of 
Michigan, put subjects in a brain scanner. He 
applied cream to both of each subject’s wrists, 
then strapped on electrodes that could deliver 
painful shocks or heat. He told the subjects that 
one of the creams could ameliorate pain, but the 
creams, in fact, were the same, and neither had 
any inherent pain-reducing qualities. After sev- 
eral rounds of conditioning, the subjects learned 
to feel less pain on the wrist coated with the “pain 
relieving” cream; on the last run, strong shocks 
felt no worse than a light pinch. A typical condi- 
tioned placebo response. 

The most interesting part was what the brain 
scans showed. Normal pain sensations begin at 
an injury and travel in a split second up through 
the spine to a network of brain areas that recog- 
nize the sensation as pain. A placebo response 
travels in the opposite direction, beginning inthe 
brain. An expectation of healing in the prefrontal 
cortex sends signals to parts of the brain stem, 
which creates opioids and releases them down 
to the spinal cord. We don’t imagine we're not in 
pain. We self-medicate, literally, by expecting the 
relief we’ve been conditioned to receive. 

“The right belief and the right experience work 


54 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC « DECEMBER 2016 


together,” says Wager, now a professor at the Uni- 
versity of Colorado Boulder and director of a neu- 
roscience lab there. “And that’s the recipe.” 

The recipe of belief and experience is finding 
its way out of the lab and into clinical practice as 
well. Christopher Spevak is a pain and addiction 
doctor at the Walter Reed National Military Med- 
ical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. Every day he 
sees active service members and veterans with 
severe injuries, sometimes just days or weeks af- 
ter they have left the battlefield. This offers him 
an opportunity to use expectation and condition- 
ing to tap into internal opioids to stave off, or at 
least mitigate, long-term pain. 

When Spevak first meets patients, he doesn’t 
ask about their injuries or their medical 
histories—he has all that on file. Instead he asks 
them about themselves. He might learn that in 
childhood a person had a favorite eucalyptus tree 
outside his house or loved peppermint candies. 
Eventually, if Spevak prescribes opioid painkill- 
ers, every time the patient takes one, he also has 
eucalyptus oil to smell or a peppermint to eat— 
whatever stimulus Spevak knows will resonate. 
Over time, just as with Jensen’s quick-flash faces 
or Wager’s skin cream (or for that matter, Pav- 
lov’s bell), patients start linking the sensory ex- 
perience to the drugs. After a while, Spevak cuts 
down on the drug and just provides the sounds or 
smells. The patient’s brain can go to an internal 
pharmacy for the needed drugs. 

“We have triple amputees, quadruple ampu- 
tees, who are on no opioids,” Spevak says of his 
Iraq and Afghanistan veteran patients. “Yet we 
have older Vietnam vets who’ve been on high 
doses of morphine for low back pain for the past 
30 years.” 


TWO YEARS AGO Leonie Koban, a member of 
Tor Wager’s lab, spearheaded a novel placebo 
study. The scientists were well aware of the roles 
of conditioning and theater in channeling expec- 
tations. They wanted to test the effect of a third 
element influencing experiences of pain: other 
believers. 

As in many previous tests of the placebo 
effect, the researchers delivered a burning 


sensation to their subjects’ arms and asked the 
subjects to rate how strong it was. But this time 
they introduced an extra variable. The volun- 
teers looked at a screen and saw a Series of hash 
marks representing how previous participants 
had rated their pain. For the same stimulus, the 
subjects reported feeling higher or lower levels 
of pain based on what they were told previous 
participants had felt. 

The result was not surprising. In the 1950s, 
a series of tests called the Asch experiments 
showed that subjects can give answers they 
know to be wrong in order to conform with the 
group. What shocked Koban and Wager was the 
Sheer strength of the social influence: The effect 
was larger than might be expected after condi- 
tioning. Tests of the subjects’ skin conductance 
responses—involuntary changes in how the 
body is conducting electricity, often used in lie 
detection—showed that they were not just re- 
porting what they thought the researchers want- 
ed to hear; they were actually responding less to 
pain. Studies with fMRI machines implicated a 
separate, complementary network of brain ac- 
tivity that kicks in when conventional placebos 
are enhanced by peer pressure. Koban goes so far 
as to say that social information might be more 
powerful in altering the experience of pain than 
both conditioning and subconscious cues. 

“Information we take from our social relation- 
ships has really profound influences, [not only] 
on emotional experiences but also on health- 
related outcomes such as pain and healing,” 
Koban says. “And we are only beginning to un- 
derstand these influences and how we can har- 
ness them.” 

The impact of the social group could help ex- 
plain why religion might in a very literal sense 
be what Karl Marx defined as “the opium of the 
people”: It can tap into the ability to access our 
own store of beliefs and expectations, especially 
when we're surrounded by other believers who 
are doing the same. 


NOWHERE IS the power of group belief more 
evident than in religious pilgrimages—whether 
it’s the annual Catholic trek to Lourdes, in 





France, the annual hajj pilgrimage of Muslims 
to Mecca, in Saudi Arabia, or, largest of all, the 
Maha Kumbh Mela, occurring every 12 years. 
The latest Kumbh Mela, in February 2013, drew 
an estimated 70 million Hindus to the Indian 
city of Allahabad. 

Or the pilgrimage to Altotting where I met 
Richard Modl. The first documented healing in 
Altotting was in 1489, when a drowned boy was 
said to have been miraculously brought back 
to life. Today the Black Madonna there attracts 
about a million visitors a year. 

The pilgrims I joined on a cold Bavarian 
morning in 2016 had already been walking since 
3 a.m. After pausing for breakfast, everyone was 
chatting happily, waiting for the signal to begin 
walking again, in the rain. I had been nervous 
about the trip because of ankle surgery I’d had 
three months before. But in that merry throng 
of believers, my pain faded away. 

“Everyone is here for their own reasons, but 
they are all here for each other just as much,” said 
Marcus Brunner, a cheery priest and 27-year vet- 
eran of the walk. “The group carries you, and you 
carry the group all together.” 

When we arrived in the Chapel of Grace, we 
found it covered inside and out with ex-votos— 
pictures representing miracles spanning hun- 
dreds of years and showing every imaginable 
ailment. Propped against the walls were crutches 
and canes left behind through the ages by parish- 
ioners and pilgrims whose suffering was relieved 
by the Black Madonna. The expectation of heal- 
ing continues unabated. 

“There is a different way of thinking here,” 
said Thomas Zauner, a psychotherapist and 
deacon who had moved to Altotting in order to 
seek a Supportive community for his develop- 
mentally disabled child. “Prayer seems to actu- 
ally work.” O 


Photographer Erika Larsen contribut- 
ed to this year’s special issue on 
Yellowstone. Some material in this 
story appears in a different form in 
Erik Vance’s Suggestible You, pub- 
lished by National Geographic Books. 


MARK THIESSEN, 
NGM STAFF 


MIND OVER MATTER 55 






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By Mel White 
Photographs by Tim Laman 


‘Sometimes I feel like P’ve 
chosen the most difficult 
thing in the world to study, 


Cheryl Knott tells me as we sit beneath the rain 
forest canopy at her orangutan research station 
in western Borneo. The high-pitched, dental- 
drill sound of cicadas fills the air, at times forcing 
us to pause our conversation. As we talk, Knott’s 
associates are at work in the surrounding forest 
of Indonesia’s Gunung Palung National Park 
with GPS units and iPads, following orangutans 
in their daily wanderings, recording what they’re 
doing, what they’re eating, and how they’re in- 
teracting with others of their species. 

Unlike gorillas and chimpanzees—fellow great 
apes that live in groups and can be followed and 
observed relatively easily—orangutans live most- 
ly solitary lives. They spend nearly all their time 
in the treetops, they wander widely, and for the 
most part they inhabit rugged forest or swampy 
lowland that’s hard for humans to traverse. As 
a result, orangutans long remained among the 
least known of Earth’s large land animals. Only 
during the past 20 years or so has scientific evi- 
dence begun to outweigh speculation as a new 
generation of researchers has tracked the elusive 
apes across the islands of Borneo and Sumatra, 
the only places orangutans live. 

For more than two decades Knott has super- 
vised the research at Gunung Palung, looking at 
many aspects of orangutan life history but fo- 
cusing especially on the way the availability of 
food affects female hormones and reproduction. 
“At the time we started here, no one had really 


62 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC « DECEMBER 2016 


worked on hormones in wild apes,” she says. 
“People said I was crazy.” 

Knott’s studies have special significance be- 
cause female orangutans give birth only every six 
to nine years. No other mammal has a longer in- 
terval between births. And there’s no telling what 
her research might mean for our knowledge of 
human fertility; we and orangutans are so similar 
that Knott can use standard drugstore test kits 
on urine from female orangutans to determine 
whether they’re pregnant. 

Typical of many forests in southeastern Asia, 
the trees at Gunung Palung produce little or no 
fruit in most seasons. Then, every four years or 
so, trees of various species simultaneously bring 
forth massive amounts of fruit in a process called 
masting. The phenomenon led Knott to wonder 
about the connection between food abundance 
and orangutan reproduction. 

Knott discovered that researchers could col- 
lect and preserve urine from female orangutans 
on filter paper so that the samples could be tested 
for hormones later. Her work has shown that re- 
productive hormones in female orangutans peak 
when fruit is most abundant in the forest—an 
adaptation to the boom-and-bust environment. 





The expressive, heart- 
melting faces of baby 
orangutans make them 
highly valuable in the 
black-market pet trade. 


“It makes a lot of sense,” Knott says. “They’re 
putting on weight during these high-fruit peri- 
ods, and then they live off that during the low- 
fruit periods. During these high-fruit periods, 
females are more likely to conceive.” 


IT’S AN EXCITING TIME for Knott and other 
orangutan researchers, as advances in technol- 
ogy (including the possibility of using drones to 
find and follow orangutans in rugged terrain) 
mean that the pace of discovery, already far more 
rapid than it was just two decades ago, will al- 
most certainly increase. This assumes, of course, 
that there will still be orangutans left to study in 
the forests of Borneo and Sumatra. 

In the 1980s and ’90s, some conservationists 
predicted that orangutans would go extinct in 
the wild within 20 or 30 years. Fortunately that 
didn’t happen. Many thousands more orangutans 
are now known to exist than were recognized at 
the turn of the millennium. 

This doesn’t mean that all is well in the orang- 
utans’ world. The higher figures come thanks to 
improved survey methods and the discovery of 
previously unknown populations, not because 
the actual numbers have increased. In fact, the 
overall population of orangutans has fallen by at 
least 80 percent in the past 75 years. It’s indica- 
tive of the difficulty of orangutan research that 
scientist Erik Meijaard, who has long studied the 
species’ population trends, is willing to say only 
that between 40,000 and 100,000 live on Borneo. 
Conservationists on Sumatra estimate that only 
14,000 survive there. Much of this loss has been 


™ Society Grant Your membership helped support 
the fieldwork and research behind this story. 


64 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC « DECEMBER 2016 





driven by habitat destruction from logging and 
the rapid spread of vast plantations of oil palm, 
the fruit of which is sold to make oil used in cook- 
ing and in many food products. 

There’s another factor at work as well. A 2013 
report by several top researchers said that as 
many as 65,000 of the apes may have been killed 
on Borneo alone in recent decades. Some were 
killed for bush meat by people struggling to sur- 
vive. Others were shot because they were raiding 
crops—or protecting their young. The expressive, 
heart-melting faces of baby orangutans make 
them highly valuable in the black-market pet 
trade, within Indonesia as well as smuggled out 
of Borneo or Sumatra to foreign destinations. The 
ferocious protectiveness of female orangutans 
means that the easiest way to obtain a baby is to 
kill the mother—a compounded tragedy that not 
only removes two animals from the wild but also 


eliminates the additional offspring the female 
would produce during her lifetime. 

At rehabilitation centers such as Interna- 
tional Animal Rescue near Gunung Palung, the 
steady influx of orphaned orangutans shows 
that this killing remains a serious problem. More 
than a thousand orangutans now live at rehab 
sites, and though the goal is to release as many 
as possible back into the forest, attempting to 
teach survival skills to young orangutans is chal- 
lenging and unproven. 

Threats to orangutans come as the recent 
boom in research is revealing a surprising range 
in their genetic makeup, physical structure, and 
behavior—including the beginnings of cultural 
development that could help us understand how 
we transitioned from ape to human. 

For centuries, scientists considered all orang- 
utans to belong to one species, but in the past 


Rows of oil palms replace rain forest near Borneo’s 
Gunung Palung National Park. Vast expanses of 
orangutan habitat have been lost to palm oil, used 
for cooking, food products, and cosmetics. 
COMPOSITE OF THREE IMAGES 


two decades new insights have led researchers 
to see Bornean and Sumatran orangutans as dis- 
tinct species, both of which are critically endan- 
gered. Surprisingly, researchers have found that 
a recently discovered population at a site called 
Batang Toru in western Sumatra is actually closer 
genetically to Bornean orangutans than to other 
Sumatran populations—possibly the result of 
differing waves of migration to the islands from 
mainland Asia. 

The Batang Toru orangutans are believed by 
some researchers to diverge from others enough 
to constitute a third species. Numbering as few 


OUT ON A LIMB 65 








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+ - here from their mothers before reaching adoles- 
cence around age 12. Some of the behaviors are 


Or ahh ans ubiquitous. Others occur only in certain areas, 
suggesting there could be regional cultures. 

































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UNIVERSITY; CAREL P. VAN SCHAIK, UNIVERSITY OF ‘ ie e sticks to extract ‘b 


ZURICH; SERGE WICH, LIVERPOOL JOHN MOORES 
UNIVERSITY; MEREDITH BASTIAN, SMITHSONIAN 
NATIONAL ZOO 


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as a makeshift umbrella. Thi learned leX=var-\Ulele 
is an example of orangutan “culture” passed 
one generation to the next. 








* 


Preserving old-growth 
rain forest is crucial, 
but the human-altered 
landscape is also vital 
to orangutan survival. 


as 400 individuals, they’re threatened by a pro- 
posed hydropower project that would fragment 
their habitat and open the area to more human 
intrusion, including illegal hunting. 

What’s more, several populations on Borneo 
are now deemed to be separate subspecies, based 
on factors such as differing body types, vocaliza- 
tions, and adaptations to the environment. The 
diversity of orangutans extends even further— 
into differences whose origins continue to resist 
scientific understanding. 


FROM HIS PERCH high in the rain forest canopy 
of Sumatra, a big male orangutan known as Sito- 
gos jumps to the trunk of a dead tree and, using 
all his 200 pounds, rocks it back and forth until 
it snaps at the base. At the last moment Sitogos 
leaps to a nearby limb, while the tree falls toward 
me with an enormous crash. 

Orangutans do this a lot when they’re mad, 
and they’re very good at it. The tree couldn’t have 
been aimed any more accurately if it had been 
laser guided. 

Sitogos means “the strong one” in the Batak 
language of northwestern Sumatra. True to his 
name, the big male stares down at me, shakes the 
branch he’s holding, and gives a guttural, bub- 
bling call. There may be Sumatran tigers and sun 
bears roaming the forest floor, he seems to say, 
but up here in the treetops, I’m the king. 

Stretching his arms to their full span of seven 
feet, Sitogos moves through the canopy by us- 
ing his long-fingered hands and dexterous feet 
to clamber from branch to branch. A young fe- 
male, Tiur (“optimistic”), follows his every move, 
approaching closely whenever he pauses. Much 
smaller and more delicately built, she persists in 


70 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC * DECEMBER 2016 


her pursuit even though he seems indifferent. 
They sprawl on a branch together, eating flowers 
and breaking off cuplike fern fronds to drink the 
water inside. When he leans forward against a 
limb, Tiur grooms his back. 

Sometime in the recent past, Sitogos had un- 
dergone an astounding transformation. He’d 
spent years hardly larger than Tiur. Then, with 
testosterone flooding his body, he’d grown pow- 
erful muscles, longer hair, fleshy pads called 
flanges on the sides of his face, and a massive 
throat sac to amplify his calls. 

The sybaritic scene in the forest canopy—the 
devoted attention of Tiur and access to her and 
other females for mating—is Sitogos’s reward, 
but his physical change has a price too. From 
somewhere in the distance comes the call of an- 
other male orangutan. Sitogos stands up, trans- 
fixed, and begins moving toward his challenger. 

The males of many species of animals undergo 
major physical changes as they mature, but for 
orangutans the process is especially intriguing. 
Not all males develop the massive bodies, facial 
flanges, and throat sacs shown by Sitogos. Many 
retain smaller bodies long after they reach sexual 
maturity, transforming years later than other in- 
dividuals. Some remain undeveloped their entire 
lives. The mechanism behind this divergence, 
called bimaturism, ranks among the greatest 
mysteries of zoology. 

In the forests of northern Sumatra, only one 
dominant flanged male maintains control over 
a local group of females. Many males in the area 
retain smaller bodies and don’t develop flanges, 
thereby avoiding the confrontations that in- 
evitably occur when several males try to assert 
dominance (until they themselves can try to 
move into the dominant role). For the smaller 
males, the only chance to pass on their genes is 
to watch from the sidelines, out of reach of the 
boss, sneaking in for mating whenever possible. 

In Borneo, by contrast, nearly all males devel- 
op flanges. They wander across large areas, with 
no one male maintaining an associated group 
of females. A male’s best chance at mating is to 
grow strong and join the competition, leading to 
more confrontations and injuries. 


On atrail not far from Knott’s research station, 
I see evidence of these conflicts. A male orang- 
utan named Prabu sits high in the branches of 
a Strangler fig, occasionally peering down to re- 
veal a fresh puncture wound on his forehead and 
a lower lip missing a chunk of flesh. Obviously 
Prabu had been in a fight, but was he the winner 
or the loser? 

As I watch, he rises up and gives the loud se- 
ries of sounds Known as a long call: a complicat- 
ed and thrilling medley of deep rumblings and 
bubbling hoots that can carry a mile through 
the forest. Usually males’ long calls last less 
than a minute, but Prabu’s continues for more 
than five minutes. Bloody but defiant, Prabu still 
proclaims his power to rival males and potential 
female mates alike. 


SOME SCIENTISTS BELIEVE the dichotomy be- 
tween male orangutans arose in part because of 
the differing geologic histories of Sumatra and 
Borneo. Sumatra is more fertile than Borneo, 
where ancient, weathered soil lacks plant nutri- 
ents, and many forests see the boom-and-bust 
cycles of masting fruit trees, leading to periods 
of low food availability. Orangutans on Sumatra 
don’t have to travel far to find enough food, and 
female density is higher. This gives males the 
ability to remain in a single place and develop 
associations. The relatively poorer environment 
of Borneo has created a free-for-all in which in- 
dividuals roam over large areas, finding food and 
mating opportunities where they can. 

This may explain why the development of 
dominant male characteristics differs between 
the islands. But it brings up a far more difficult 
question. 

“How does a Sumatran male Know that if he 
grows flanges and he’s not the boss, he’s not go- 
ing to be successful at mating?” Carel van Schaik 
asks as we talk in his office in Switzerland, at 
the University of Zurich, where he and his col- 
leagues have published dozens of scientific pa- 
pers on orangutan research from both Sumatra 
and Borneo. 

The answer to van Schaik’s question, of course, 
is that the male doesn’t “know,” in the human 


sense. “It’s not something they can learn,” van 
Schaik says. “There has to be a switch, the sensi- 
tivity of the switch has to be different for different 
populations, and it has to be somehow genetic.” 

This question of how male development is 
triggered remains unanswered, in part because 
of the same challenge that faces orangutan re- 
searchers on so many fronts: Their subjects are 
just so difficult to study. 

In addition to their physiological diversity, 
orangutans exhibit differences in behavior that 
are passed from individual to individual and gen- 
eration to generation in ways that can legitimate- 
ly be called cultural. 

“At one of our sites we’ve heard a call used by 
mothers when they reassure their kid,” Maria van 
Noordwijk, a member of the Zurich team who 
studies primate maternal care, told me. “We call 
it the throat scrape. We had a female that we knew 
pretty well before she gave birth for the first time. 
The day after giving birth she already gave that 
call. It had never been heard before from her. It’s 
clearly something she learned from her mom.” 

“Primates aren’t supposed to do vocal learn- 
ing,” says Carel van Schaik. “And yet, unless you 
believe this is genetic, which we think we can re- 
ject, then it’s very likely that it’s cultural. What 
orangutans do isn’t like the human voice, but 
the comprehension and learning and imitating 
of sounds is there.” 


RESEARCHERS SEE MORE than just animals’ 
behavior when they watch orangutans. After all, 
these scientists (and you and I) took only a slight- 
ly divergent route on the great-ape evolutionary 
highway than did their arboreal subjects. Behind 
the field notes and data points is the question of 
what orangutans can tell us about humans. 
Unlocking all the secrets contained in the 
brains and bodies of these great-ape relatives 
means preserving the entire spectrum of adap- 
tations. “If every group is unique, it’s not good 
enough to say we'll protect them at just a few 
spots,” Knott says. The loss of any single popula- 
tion brings an end to any chance to learn from its 
unique environmental and cultural adaptations. 
I spent time in the field with Marc Ancrenaz, 


OUT ONA LIMB 71 






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Fires set to clear forest for oil palm and other crops burned more than six million 
acres in Indonesia in 2015. Unequipped to survive in the wild after years as a pet, 
this male orangutan will spend his life at a rescue center. 


who since 1996 has directed an orangutan research 
and conservation project on the Kinabatangan 
River, in the Sabah region of northeastern Borneo. 
Here several hundred orangutans live in a nar- 
row corridor of degraded habitat along the river, 
among villages that themselves are surrounded 
by asea of oil palm. The patchy woodland is noth- 
ing like the “virgin rain forest” usually associated 
with orangutans. 

“Of course we would prefer primary forest, but 
this is what we have,” Ancrenaz says, as we take 
Shelter from a storm in a hut at his study site. 
Outside, the muddy ground is dotted with the 
circular footprints of Borneo pygmy elephants. 
“Twenty years ago science thought orangutans 
couldn’t survive outside primary forest. We were 
very surprised here. How come orangutans are 
in a place where they are not supposed to be?” 

Ancrenaz is among several researchers who 


74 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC * DECEMBER 2016 





see the human-altered landscape as vital to 
orangutans’ survival. “I think this is the future of 
biodiversity,” he says. 

In western Borneo, Knott has set up an organi- 
zation to work with local communities to develop 
sustainable alternative livelihoods, reduce ille- 
gal logging and poaching, and provide conser- 
vation education in areas surrounding Gunung 
Palung National Park. In the same spirit, An- 
crenaz has established conservation education 
programs in Sabah schools and communities, 
trying to find ways that people and nature can 
coexist. He partners with people living along the 
Kinabatangan, helping them make money from 
orangutans and other wildlife through ecotourism 
and related enterprises. His hope is that residents 
will become invested in the survival of animals. 
“Remote villages are the front line for wildlife con- 
servation,” he says. “If we don’t incorporate local 


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people into our plans, I think we’re going to fail.” 

For orangutans to survive in their present di- 
versity, governments and conservationists must 
make smart choices about where to establish 
preserves, how to manage them, and how to use 
limited resources. They must find ways for the 
species to coexist with humans on two islands 
where habitat is constantly shrinking. 

“IT see a lot of people trying to do conservation 
with their heart, with their feelings, which is 
fine,” Ancrenaz says. “But conservation has to be 
backed up with strong science. The goal of people 
doing research is to produce better Knowledge, 
better understanding of orangutan ecology and 
genetics. The rest is actually using this knowl- 
edge to impact land use and communities. This 
is where conservation takes place.” 

In the forests of Borneo and Sumatra, orang- 
utan behavior determined by millions of years 


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of evolution endures: Males challenge each oth- 
er with their calls, young males wait for their 
chances to assert dominance, and females teach 
their young how to survive in the treetops. Some 
of the mysteries of their lives have been revealed. 
What else we learn will depend on the success of 
this teaming of science and conservation, seek- 
ing answers about the links between humans and 
these apes that seem so like us when we look into 
their eyes. 

“AS a scientist you’re supposed to be objec- 
tive,” Knott says, as we talk at her camp deep in 
the Borneo rain forest. “But you’re also human, 
and that connection is why I’m here.” U 


Photographer Tim Laman and anthropologist 
Cheryl Knott, a husband-and-wife team, have been 
documenting the private lives of orangutans since 
1992. “Every year brings new surprises,” says Knott. 


OUT ON A LIMB 75 





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By Julia Ioffe 
Photographs by Gerd Ludwig 


e doesn’t know where to take me 
when I meet him at the hotel by 
the train station, so we just start 
to walk down the dusty summer 
streets of Nizhniy Tagil, a sput- 
tering industrial city on the eastern slope of the 
Ural Mountains. His name is Sasha Makarevich, 
a 24-year-old cement worker, a blond ponytail 
falling down his back, a Confederate flag stitched 
onto his cutoff denim vest. “I thought it just meant 
independence,” he explains when I ask about it. 

We walk past a small, one-story cube of a build- 
ing covered with images of red Soviet stars and 
the orange-and-black St. George’s ribbon that 
holds imperial, Soviet, and Russian military med- 
als. “We could go in here,” Sasha shrugs. “But it’s 
full of people who survived the Nineties.” 

Sasha survived the Nineties too. In December 
1991, just months before he was born, the Soviet 
flag came down over the Kremlin and the Rus- 
sian tricolor went up, ushering in the decade 
that hangs like a bad omen in the contemporary 
Russian psyche. The expectation that Russians 
would start living like their prosperous West- 
ern counterparts gave way to a painful reality: It 
would be a hard slog to turn a command econo- 
my into a market one, to make a democracy out 
of asociety that had lived under absolute monar- 
chy and totalitarianism for centuries. 

I never got to see those Nineties. My family left 
Moscow in April 1990. When I first returned, in 
2002, the era of President Vladimir Putin, the an- 
tidote to the turbulent Nineties, was in full swing. 
Since then I’ve been back to Russia many times 


82 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC « DECEMBER 2016 





and lived there for several years as a reporter. 

Most of the Russians I Know have, to some 
extent, been shaped by the 74-year Soviet ex- 
periment. We know in a deep, personal way our 
families’ small histories and tragedies within the 
larger tragedy of that history. But this generation 
coming up Knows only a Russia traumatized by 
the Nineties and then tightly ruled by Putin. This 
year—25 years after the Soviet Union’s collapse—I 
went back again, to meet these young people like 
Sasha. Who are they? What do they want from 
their lives? What do they want for Russia? 


INSIDE THE WINDOWLESS BAR, all linoleum 
and fake-wood paneling, Sasha and I get some 
thin beer in thin plastic cups and find a seat 


L “? Nd 





An energetic 27-year-old entrepreneur, Radik Minnakhmetov straightens Putin's official portrait, prominently 
displayed in his office next to one of the president of Tatarstan, a Russian republic about 450 miles east of 
Moscow. At 24, Minnakhmetov became the head of a new futuristic stadium in Kazan, Tatarstan’s capital. 


among the heavily tattooed, red-faced men in 
tracksuits and sandals, blasting reedy Russian 
pop from their phones. 

Nizhniy Tagil, Sasha says, “is all factories and 
prison camps.” Once famous for manufacturing 
the Soviet Union’s train cars and tanks, it’s now 
famous for its idled factories, unemployment, 
and Vladimir Putin. When Putin announced, in 
2011, his intention to return for a third presiden- 
tial term, protests broke out in Moscow and other 
large cities. The protesters were largely from the 
young, educated, urban middle class, and that 


winter a factory worker from Nizhniy Tagil told 
Putin on national TV that he and “the boys” were 
ready to come to Moscow to beat up the protest- 
ers. Putin demurred, but the city has come to be 
seen as the very heart of Putinland. 

Now Nizhniy Tagil has a new mayor, whom 
Putin sent in to beautify the city, and a local mag- 
nate has built a fancy health care clinic, but life is 
still tough here. Sasha went to school for welding 
and worked in a factory making good money un- 
til crashing oil prices and Western sanctions for 
the invasion of Ukraine sank the economy. Sasha 


THE PUTIN GENERATION 83 


stopped getting paid. He spent a year looking for 
work before he landed a job in a Boeing factory 
two hours away. Now he makes 30,000 rubles, or 
$450, a month—about the local average. 

I meet Sasha after a long workday, and he is 
tired, his hands dirty. He doesn’t feel totally com- 
fortable—or safe—in this bar with the survivors 
of the Nineties. The city he describes is a violently 
conformist place. “People here are very aggressive 
toward anyone who doesn’t look like them,” he 
says. It’s a local, working-class uniform: tracksuit, 
buzz cut with a hint of bangs. His peers, Sasha 
says, are often children of ex-cons. “They don’t 
respect the law,” Sasha says. “‘A real man is either 
in the army or in jail.’ My sixth-grade teacher told 
us that.” So Sasha learned to fight, with fists, with 
Knives. Once he walked home after a fight cov- 
ered in someone else’s blood, and he is strangely, 
beatifically cheerful as he tells me all this. 

What Sasha really wants to do is escape to cos- 
mopolitan St. Petersburg and open a bar. He’s 
been there a couple times; it’s where he feels most 
at home. But his girlfriend won’t move unless he 
buys an apartment there. Between his salary and 
hers, his dream will likely remain just that. 

It isa common refrain in Nizhniy Tagil: young 
people with young-people dreams, locked out of 
them by the reality of Putin’s Russia. They want 
to travel, but their salaries are in rubles, the value 
of which has been halved by the economic cri- 
sis. Some want to open their own businesses but 
don’t know how to scale the dangerous slopes of 
local corruption. So they train their sights low- 
er. They want a house or apartment, a car, anda 
family. The things they crave are also the things 
that many of them didn’t have precisely because 
their families survived the Nineties. 

“The Nineties were very hard for us financial- 
ly,” Alexander Kuznetsov, a 20-year-old from 
Nizhniy Tagil, tells me. “In 1998 my dad left the 
family.” Alexander was three. “My mom’s entire 
salary went to feed me. I didn’t have many toys,” 
he says. “I’m alone in the family.” That left its 
mark. “For me the most important thing is fami- 
ly,” Alexander tells me as we sip coffee in a café off 
the main square. “I don’t want to strive for high 
professional posts and have an empty home.” 


84 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC * DECEMBER 2016 


His father fought in the first Chechen war, in 
1994. “Don’tjoin the army, son,” he advised Alexan- 
der. That was the sum total of his father’s recollec- 
tions of the Nineties. But Alexander isn’t bothering 
to find a way out of the universal draft. “I always 
wanted to join,” he explains. “Everyone in my 
family was in the military. My great-grandfather 
fought in World War II.” Plus, military service 
opens up some of the more lucrative job prospects 
for a young man in Russia: work in the police or 
the Federal Security Service, or FSB, the successor 
to the KGB. The army would give him a shot at 
being acop like his father. “I really want to havea 
stable income,” Alexander says. 

As Alexander and I talk, his friend Stepan, a 
strapping, smiling young man with a blond buzz 
cut, bounces in to join us. “So,” he says, flashing 
me a mischievous grin, “you’re writing about 
what it was like in the Soviet Union? People lived 
a lot better then.” 

“What!” exclaims Alexander. “Lived better?! 
No, we didn’t!” 

They argue about what it was like to live in 
Soviet times, until Stepan, who was born in 1992, 
realizes he has a question for me: “You Americans 
are pressuring us, slapping us with sanctions,” 
he says. “What are you preparing for us? A war?” 
He explains why it was right for Russia to annex 
Crimea and for Putin to stand up to the West. 

Stepan is reluctant to tell me his last name 
because I’m an American journalist, but when 
it’s time for me to go, he offers me a ride. “Real- 
ly, though,” he says to no one in particular as we 
wheel through the city, “I want to get out of here.” 

Out of where? I ask. Nizhniy Tagil? 

“No,” he says. “Russia.” 

After his patriotic bluster, this was unexpect- 
ed. Why? I ask him. 

“There’s nothing to do here,” he says without 
any bitterness. “No opportunities, no way to grow 
and develop and make something of yourself.” 

What’s your backup plan? I ask. 

“What’s my backup plan?” he repeats, smiling 
broadly. “Join the FSB.” 


“THOSE WHO WERE BORN in the U.S.S.R. and 
those born after its collapse do not share acommon 


experience,’ wrote Svetlana Alexievich, who won 
the Nobel Prize in literature in 2015. “It’s like 
they’re from different planets.” 

The Soviet Union drowned in a surge of opti- 
mism. Many believed Russia would quickly be- 
come a flourishing, Western-style democracy. 
But the optimism of 1991 dissipated in a decade of 
often depressing contradictions. With the end of 
the planned economy came untold riches or entry 
into anew middle class for some; for others it was 
asudden plunge into poverty. Previously unavail- 
able goods flooded store shelves, while the money 
to buy them periodically lost 
its value. Crime, especially in 
commerce, skyrocketed. Pol- 
itics came out into the open, 
but many Russians came to see 
it as a dirty business. 

Russians struggled to adjust 
to this foreign reality. It was a 
time of unprecedented free- 
dom, but many found it deep- 
ly disorienting. “When these 
[Western] values encountered 
reality and people saw that 
changes came too slowly, these 
values receded into the background,” says Natal- 
ia Zorkaya, a sociologist with the Levada Center, 
an independent polling organization in Moscow. 
Instead, she says, the younger generations are 
adopting “the pillars of Soviet society.” 

Sasha, Alexander, Stepan, and their cohort 
do live on a planet different from the one their 
parents and grandparents live on, yet they are 
in some ways becoming even more Soviet. It’s 
a strange thing: These young men and women 
know little of the privations, habits, and cruelty 
of Soviet life. The Putin generation doesn’t carry 
this wound. Their desire for staid normalcy— 
intact families, reliable, if unsatisfying, jobs—is 
their response to what they lacked in the Nineties 
and found in the Putin era. 

Yet they are profoundly insecure. Sixty-five per- 
cent of Russians between ages 18 and 24—that is, 
the first generation born after the Soviet breakup— 
plan their lives no more than a year or two ahead, 
according to the Levada Center. “It’s a very 


egotistical generation,” Zorkaya says, but adds, 
“It’s a very fragile generation.” They are also po- 
litically inert: Most don’t know about news events 
the state doesn’t want them to know about, and 
83 percent say they have not participated in any 
kind of political or civil society activity. 


LIZA MEETS ME IN THE GLITTERING white 
lobby of one of the many glass towers—some 
blue spirals, some coppery shards—that make up 
Moscow City, a financial center that looks like a 
cross between London and Shanghai. I follow her 


The Putin generation wants 
intact families and reliable, 
if unsatisfying, jobs. It 
associates the Soviet Union 
with longed-for stability. 


through tunnels linking the towers underground 
with cafés, shops, and an exhibit with paintings of 
Putin and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov. 
We order lunch, and Liza, a stylish young woman 
with long, curled blond hair, dimples, and an ex- 
pensive watch, tells me her story as she slurps her 
borscht. She asks me not to use her last name be- 
cause she doesn’t want to upset her parents. 

She was born in Blagoveshchensk, in the Rus- 
sian Far East, in 1992. A year before, her father, 
a history teacher, had been out in the streets of 
Moscow, cheering the arrival of democracy. But 
on returning home after the Soviet Union’s de- 
mise, he was forced to find other ways to support 
the family. He began crossing the border into 
China and carrying back anything from clothes to 
appliances for resale in Russia. “I remember him 
coming home with money sewn into his shirt so 
that he wouldn't get robbed,” Liza tells me. 

She’s a corporate lawyer at a large Western 
firm. It’s fine, but it’s not what she wanted to do. 


THE PUTIN GENERATION 85 





Popularity, Putin Style 


Vladimir Putin is widely viewed at home as the man who tamed a tumultuous post- 
Soviet Russia and the first leader in decades willing to stand up to the West. His strong 
personality, combined with near-total control over the Russian media, has helped 
him Keep his standing, especially among the young. If reelected in 2018, he'll be 
Russia’s second longest serving leader, trailing only Joseph Stalin’s 30-year reign. 


Standard of Living 
Makes Gains 


Putin benefited from tough 
economic reforms adopted by 
Boris Yeltsin and his predeces- 
sor, Mikhail Gorbachev, as well as 
from increased oil revenue as 
prices rose beginning in 2003. 
Gross domestic product (GDP) 
per person has grown 70 percent 
under Putin, compared with 17 
percent in the European Union. 


Stability Returns 
to the Job Market 


Soviet leaders claimed that 
they had “liquidated” unemploy- 
ment in the 1930s. So Russians 
were shocked by the rampant 
joblessness under Yeltsin, then 
relieved by the return to pros- 
perity and jobs under Putin. 


Corruption Persists 
and Wealth Rises 


Despite widespread support for 
Putin, many Russians view their 
government as highly corrupt, 
seeing the sudden dramatic rise 
in the number of billionaires as 
evidence. More billionaires live 
in Moscow than in any other city 
in the world besides New York 
and Hong Kong. 


86 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC 





Russian Boris Vladimir 
oresident Yeltsin Putin 


1 
e 


Russian 


GDP per capita* 

1992 2000 2008 
Yeltsin 138% Putin 

Russian 


unemployment rate 


$23,895 





2012 2015 





1992 2000 

Corruption perception rank and score, Number 
selected nations, 2015 of Russian 
billionaires 

Rank 1 | Denmark (least corrupt) 
16 | U.S. 
167 Somalia (most corrupt) 
Score O | Sel ae Nene 
Most corrupt Least corrupt 2000 


*CONSTANT 2011 INTERNATIONAL DOLLARS AT PURCHASING-POWER-PARITY RATES 


2015 


St. Petersburg 


Nizhniy Tagil» 


* Nikolskoye 


Moscow 


R US § 





— Extent ofthe 
Soviet Union in 1991 


-CRIMEA 
Former Soviet republics : 7 | 4.) UZBEKISTAN 
that joined NATO in 2004 Beslan. CHECHNYA 

~_ o - , 





Heralded at Home 


With no powerful opposition, Putin has 
remained popular despite challenges, 
including the admission of three former 
Soviet republics into NATO, terrorist 
attacks, and a collapsing ruble. 





2000 2002 2004 2004 2008 2008-09 2011-12 2014 2014 
Second Moscow NATO Beslan War with Great Anti- Annexation Collapse 
Chechen theater expansion — school Georgia Recession government of Crimea of ruble 


war siege into Baltics , siege : . protests 


20° @ e 


® 
a - 
. 


© 
© 


dimir Putin 


_s 
3 
S 
oS 


freee itrees 


“< 
saa OD eee & 








AVERAGE 75% — 








60% 
Il Clinton, a5 
AC S DUSI: 4 = cC 
Approval rating 
Domestic polling 
20% 
Jan. 2001 May 2009 May July 
2000 2008 2012 2016 


An Active Everyman 


Putin has publicly participated in a wide variety of traditionally masculine endeavors, 
in contrast to the aging and infirm Yeltsin, whom he succeeded on December 31, 1999. 


Skiing 


Fishing Hunting Judo 





MATTHEW W. CHWASTYK AND JOHN TOMANIO, NGM STAFF; FARHANA HOSSAIN. SOURCES: ANDERS ASLUND, ATLANTIC COUNCIL; WORLD BANK; TRANSPARENCY 
INTERNATIONAL; FORBES.COM; LEVADA CENTER; GALLUP.COM. PHOTOS (LEFT TO RIGHT): ALEXANDER NATRUSKIN, REUTERS; RUSSIAN PRESIDENTIAL PRESS AND 
INFORMATION OFFICE; ALEXEY DRUZHININ, AFP/GETTY IMAGES; DMITRY ASTAKHOV, GETTY IMAGES; AFP/GETTY IMAGES; ALEXEY DRUZHININ, RUSSIAN PRESIDENTIAL 
PRESS AND INFORMATION OFFICE; DMITRY ASTAKHOV, GETTY IMAGES 


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With some seven million Instagram followers, 29-year-old TV actress Nastasya Samburskaya (@samburskaya) 
is one of Russia’s biggest social media stars. Nevertheless, like many Muscovites, she lives in a small 
apartment. No different from youth in many countries, young Russians rarely part with their smartphones. 


“T always wanted to be a journalist; I was always 
writing,” she says, noting that her grandmother 
Kept all her short stories. “But my parents told 
me journalism isn’t serious. It’s a venal profes- 
sion”—a relic of the 1990s, when journalism here 
was bought and sold like any commodity—“You 
won't make a lot of money. You’re the oldest and 
the smartest; you need to go into a solid profes- 
sion so you can feed yourself and take care of 
your sister.” Along the way her parents separated. 
Her father’s business eventually took off, and 
Liza was able to spend a year of high school in 
Oregon and also study abroad in London. 

A modern Westernized woman, she tells her 
mother about her boyfriends and the drug- 
fueled parties she attends. But in some ways she 
is very, very Russian. “Putin irritates me,” she 
begins, sounding like many in the oppositional, 
educated milieu of Moscow. “But just let a for- 
eigner try to criticize him! I will always defend 
Russia.” When she was in London, she says, peo- 
ple constantly made fun of Russia and Russian 
women, mocking them as mail-order brides. “It 


92 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC « DECEMBER 2016 


was Offensive to the point of tears, to sit there and 
hear outsiders making fun of us,” she says. 

This is as political as she gets these days. Back 
in 2011 Liza became interested in liberal politics, 
which was all the rage in Moscow. She joined Am- 
nesty International and the liberal Yabloko party 
as an observer for the December parliamentary 
elections. She was assigned to the polling station 
at her little sister’s school and was shocked to see 
teachers stuffing ballot boxes. When Liza tried to 
say something, they screamed at her and made 
her sit in a corner while the principal blocked her 
view. This was happening all over the country. 
Many election observers caught it on their phones 
and put the proof online, which sparked a mass 
protest movement in Moscow and major cities 
unlike any Russia had seen in 20 years. 

Liza, however, lost her nerve. “I was hysterical,” 
she tells me. “I spent two hours crying.” After that 
she decided, “No more politics. Ever. This doesn’t 
concern me, and I’m not strong enough to fight.” 
It’s a promise that she hasn’t broken, even as the 
ruble has crashed, cutting into her ability to do 








Students take a break at Muhammadiya madrassa in Kazan, a city on the Volga River that is about half ethnic 
Russian and half Tatar. Most Tatars are Muslim; Islam, Russia’s second largest religion, is followed by about 
7 percent of the population. The school teaches religion, humanities, linguistics, and Tatar history and culture. 


the other thing she loves most: travel. “Yes, it’s 
terrible; there are fewer opportunities,” she says, 
but she refuses to seek an answer in politics. “It’s 
a psychological block.” 

Kseniya Obidina, Liza’s law school friend, 
sees things similarly. Also the child of divorce, 
she says family and stability are of primary im- 
portance to her. She wants a secure, well-paying 
job. She wants to be able to afford travel and to 
support her mother and sister. This dream has 
become more remote, though, with the politi- 
cal and economic crisis: Kseniya wants to work 
at foreign law firms, but they are increasingly 
packing up and leaving the country. Like Liza, 
she refuses to think about politics. “I don’t see 
the point of talking about something you can’t 
influence. Talk for talk’s sake isn’t interesting,” 
she says as we sit in a Moscow Starbucks. As we 
leave, she adds, “It’s better to know and be quiet. 
It’s better not to speak up. Why spoil your mood?” 


HOW DID THEY COME to be this way? Vladimir 
Putin is a big part of the answer. He came to power 


in 2000 as an anti-Nineties candidate just as this 
generation was becoming aware of the world 
around them. He promised to bring prosperity and 
security. Coasting on historically high oil prices 
and economic reforms implemented in the Nine- 
ties, Putin was able to fulfill much of that promise 
but at the expense of democratic freedoms. 
Stability and economic well-being became the 
ideology of the day, peppered with a heavy dose 
of nostalgia for the U.S.S.R. and a whitewashing 
of its sins. Putin called the disintegration of the 
Soviet Union “the greatest geopolitical catastro- 
phe” of the 20th century. Whoever didn’t feel 
that, he said, “doesn’t have a heart.” Joseph Sta- 
lin became, in the business-friendly lingo of the 
day, an “effective manager” who went a bit too far. 
Textbooks and television came to reflect this new, 
state-sanctioned nostalgia. Today 58 percent of 
Russians would still like to see a return of the Sovi- 
et order, and some 40 percent see Stalin favorably. 
Much of post-Soviet life has been a hapless 
search for a uniting idea. At first it was democ- 
racy; then consumerism became a stand-in for 


THE PUTIN GENERATION 93 


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At aclassy high school prom at St. Petersburg’s elegant Grand Hotel Emerald, students help themselves to a 
pyramid of cocktails. The end of communism brought both poverty and wealth to Russia and created a small 
middle class. For the young who lived through the volatile 1990s, economic security remains a top desire. 


Westernization. “Modernization came through 
consumption, but that’s not enough,” says sociol- 
ogist Zorkaya. Ikea, which came to Russia in 2000, 
became wildly popular among the new middle 
class as a way to affordably live in a stylish Eu- 
ropean—that is, non-Soviet—way. “It became a 
symbol of how you could civilize your life without 
alot of money,” she says, “but the fact that behind 
this decor is a totally different concept of human 
beings and values, somehow it doesn’t connect 
for Russians.” 

Since the beginning of his third presidential 
term, in 2012, Putin has promoted an even more 
aggressive neo-Soviet ideology, both at home and 
abroad. He fought to keep former Soviet repub- 
lics, like Ukraine and Kazakhstan, in Moscow’s 
sphere of influence and flexed Russia’s military 
power in distant Syria. A series of laws promot- 
ed traditional social values and made dissent 
even more dangerous. One result is a generation 
whose dreams are the embodiment of everything 
Putin desires them to be: conformist, materialist, 
and highly risk averse. 


94 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC « DECEMBER 2016 


Much is made of Putin’s stratospheric popular- 
ity—at the time I reported this article, Putin had 
the approval of 80 percent of Russians polled. But 
Russians between the ages of 18 and 24 approve 
of him at a higher rate than any other age group: 
88 percent. More than any other generation, they 
are proud of their country and its stature in the 
world, associate its military prowess with great- 
ness, and believe in its future. 


IN A DARK, NARROW COURTYARD in Novosi- 
birsk, between two 19th-century brick buildings, 
I find the local bohemians drinking beer and lis- 
tening to electronic music. It’s here that Filipp Kri- 
kunoyv, born in 1995, opened an art gallery. Ducking 
away from the gathering, he shows me around. One 
room is lit with a fluorescent pink light, the wall 
arrayed with shelves holding mini-busts of Lenin, 
painted in silly patterns. In the next room young 
artists have cobbled together mind-bending ways 
to take selfies: Stick your head into this cardboard 
box full of shattered mirrors. Stick your head in 
another to find the remains of a Burger King meal. 





Seminary students at Moscow Theological Academy in Sergiyev Posad study the New Testament, liturgical 
music, icon painting, and other subjects. Brutally repressed by the communists, the Russian Orthodox 
Church has seen a resurgence under Putin, who sees it as an ally in his bid to restore the nation to greatness. 


One of Filipp’s friends and partners in the gal- 
lery bounds up and shakes my hand. “We just 
found out that they didn’t bury anyone under 
this space,” he gushes. After Filipp rented the 
rooms, he and his friends realized that the build- 
ing next door houses the FSB. In the 1930s it was 
called the NKVD, and it killed as many as 1.2 mil- 
lion people. Often the NKVD’s victims were shot 
and buried on-site. But Filipp’s gallery, Space of 
Modern Art, lucked out. No bones in the base- 
ment here. Just hipsters in the mild Siberian 
summer night. 

I had met Filipp earlier that day at a chic 
Novosibirsk café, surrounded by impossibly fash- 
ionable young women with very obvious lip jobs. 
Novosibirsk is Russia’s third largest city, a center 
of industry and scientific innovation. There’s a 
lot of money here. Filipp, though, didn’t see much 
of it. He grew up without a father. Like many 
young Russians, he was raised by his mother and 
grandmother. His great-grandfather fought in 
World War II and was later purged by Stalin. His 
grandmother became a renowned chemist, and 


his mother also worked in science. But the wom- 
en’s passion was politics. “All the main hashtags 
at home are politics,” Filipp says. 

Filipp was 16 when the pro-democracy pro- 
tests broke out in Moscow and spread to cities 
like Novosibirsk. Tens of thousands poured into 
the streets to demand free and fair elections, 
yet the protests felt more like block parties than 
demonstrations. Filipp too was fed up with Putin. 
“Messages were being sent to him, messages of 
discontent, and yet there was no dialogue with 
those people,” Filipp says. He didn’t recognize 
the Russia that Kremlin-controlled television 
showed. “That was a different country,” he says. 
“T didn’t know a single person like that.” 

“T went to the protests. I tried to be politically 
active,” Filipp tells me. “It was boiling inside me. 
I wasn’t thinking about anything else. The whole 
country is rising in protest, and I’m part of it.” 
But he was soon disappointed. “I looked around, 
and the people at the rallies weren’t my people. I 
wasn't totally comfortable,” he says. “And it didn’t 
lead to anything.” 


THE PUTIN GENERATION 95 





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Mikhail Vasilev, a 29-year-old billiard-equipment salesman, practices his skateboard moves in Moscow’s 
Triumfalnaya Square near a statue of Vladimir Mayakovsky, a poet who extolled the 1917 revolution. Russia’s 
young people have more freedoms than their parents and grandparents could ever have imagined. 


That’s not quite true. The protests did change 
things, just not for the better. In May 2012 the 
Kremlin cracked down. Since then dozens of 
people who attended protests have been round- 
ed up, tried, and jailed. The political situation in 
the country only worsened as Putin—feeling be- 
trayed by the middle class he felt he had created 
with his policies—pursued an increasingly au- 
thoritarian line. He publicly labeled liberals who 
advocated for freedom and democracy “national 
traitors” and “a fifth column.” 

The harsh response left a deep impression on 


100 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ¢ DECEMBER 2016 


the Putin generation: It taught them to stay out of 
politics. “I decided that either I fight this system,” 
Filipp says, “or I live in a different system”—the 
world of art. “There’s more good in it,” he says. 
“Politics are nerve-racking. You’re constantly un- 
happy; you're not enjoying your life.” 

Putin is up for reelection in 2018. There is little 
doubt that he will run again and even less that he 
will win another six-year term. That would mean 
he would be in power until 2024, if not longer. By 
then Filipp, who was five when Putin first became 
president, would be 29. Is he comfortable living 








with Putin until then? He shrugs. “I’ve lived my 
whole life with my right hand, and it’s fine.” 


IN AKADEMGORODOK, a small academic town 
built around Novosibirsk State University and its 
many labs, I meet Alexandra Mikhaylova. She’s 
20, with cutoff denim shorts and the dyed red hair 
of a punk rocker. Alexandra came from a family 
of scientists—her mom is a geologist and her 
father a physicist—who gravitated to this little 
town, which was founded in 1957 as an incubator 
for science and the engine of the Soviet Union’s 
technological race with the West. Since the Sovi- 
et collapse, underfunded Russian scientists have 
fallen behind their Western colleagues. Both of 
Alexandra’s parents have gone into business. 





Now, as a third-year journalism student, she 
is working on a documentary about the town 
and its lively intellectual history, specifically the 
underground of the 1960s. “They had their own 
system of government until 1966,” Alexandra 
tells me as we stand in the gleaming hallway of 
the university's new building. Her eyes light up 
as she tells me about her research into this lit- 
tle corner of freedom and intellectual ferment 
in asea of totalitarianism. In 1966 some of these 
free-spirited young scientists wrote a letter to 
Moscow, complaining about things they didn’t 
like. The response, Alexandra says, was swift. 
Many were fired, and strict political control was 
put in place. But Alexandra’s documentary picks 
up again in the 1980s, with the Soviet punk rock 
underground that spread all over the country. 

These days, Alexandra says, “it’s stagnant. 
Something’s missing. People aren’t politically en- 
gaged. When it comes to the government, young 
people are either neutral or positively disposed. 
No one stands up for their opinion, and there’s a 
thin line between indifference and agreement.” 

The government is again in the censorship busi- 
ness. A classic rocker from the 1990s had his con- 
cert canceled here because he spoke out against 
the invasion of Ukraine. “Year after year they close 
another media outlet, the ones that show things 
more objectively,’ Alexandra says. More than any- 
thing, though, she is saddened that the Akadem- 
gorodok she lives in lacks the creative fervor of the 
Sixties and Eighties. The society around her, un- 
like the one her parents experienced, is cautious 
and stale. She longs for a change, a shake-up. But 
she knows it won't be her generation that brings it. 

“It'll be the kids who are 13, 15 now,” Alexandra 
says wistfully. When they are the age she is now, 
her generation will have other priorities. “We’ll 
try to help, but if you’re 30, you’re not going to 
lead a revolution with a baby in your arms.” U 


Julia loffe is a contributing writer for 
Politico Magazine and the Huffington 
Post’s Highline. Born in Moscow, she 
lived there while writing for Foreign 
Policy and the New Yorker. This is her 
first article for National Geographic. 


THE PUTIN GENERATION 101 


= Glacial retreat 






Sunrise lights up the Garden Wall, . 
a spine of rock shaped by for>w {Ve [; 
el EXel eR ClalalaraReleetolclmelaterwilliave 


the basin below the wall, but like eb EA ON Cn | 
most glaciers in a warming world, it’s , oy 4 4 oe, ce yi ea = tae. 
shrinking: Since 1850 ithaslostmore ° = Oates es, knits Bre 
than 75 percent of its surface area. 7 eT ORE Sen , 

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THE PARKS | 
OF TOMORROW 5 - A ’ 


America’s special places will always be 
beautiful—but a warming climate forces us 
to accept that they can’t be frozen in time. 





102 








, ave ys nis =  ¥ 3 














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qa “an ‘2 OLYMPIC NATIONAL PARK, 
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’a Stars along the Pacific coast 
~ have e been eying iprecedonted 
“numbers. Scientists suspect that ~ 
warmer seas are weakening the 
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% 























SEQUOIA NATIONAL PARK,  —— Sie 
CALIFORNIA 7 se 


Heat,drought 

High in the Sierra Nevada, floodlit ies tie 
giant sequoias tower into the night | eo 
sky. They can live 3,000 years, but “Chak 


OF: 1li vo) galt=e=malloicelaleme|colblelalmar= ls) 
tested them. “We’re treating this ~~ | 
drought as a preyiew of the future,” 
says ecologist Naté Stephenson. 


Fe. ne 








THE POWER OF PARKS 
A YEARLONG EXPLORATION 


SSATEAGUE ISLAND National Seashore, which sits 
on a 37-mile-long sliver of land just off the coast of 
Maryland and Virginia, is gradually shuffling west. 
Over centuries, as hurricanes and nor’easters drive 
sand from its Atlantic beaches across the island 
and into its bayside marshes, the entire island is 
scooting closer to the coast. 

“It’s neat, isn’t it?” says Ishmael Ennis, hunching against a stiff 
spring wind. “Evolution!” He grins at the beach before him. It’s littered 
with tree stumps, gnarled branches, and chunks of peat the size of seat 
cushions—the remains of a marsh that once formed the western shore 
of the island. Later buried by storm-shifted sand, it’s now resurfacing 
to the east, as the island shuffles on. 

Ennis, who recently retired after 34 years as maintenance chief at 
Assateague, has seen his share of storms here. This national seashore, 
in fact, owes its existence to a nor’easter: In March 1962, when the leg- 
endary Ash Wednesday storm plowed into Assateague, it obliterated the 
nascent resort of Ocean Beach, destroying its road, its first 30 buildings, 
and its developers’ dreams. (Street signs erected for nonexistent streets 
were left standing in a foot of seawater.) Taking advantage of that set- 
back, conservationists persuaded Congress in 1965 to protect most of 
the island as part of the National Park System. Today it’s the longest 
undeveloped stretch of barrier island on the mid-Atlantic coast, beloved 
for its shaggy feral ponies, its unobstructed stargazing, and its quiet 
ocean vistas—which have always been punctuated, as they are on other 
barrier islands, by impressive storms. 

Scientists expect that as the climate changes, the storms will likely 
strengthen, sea levels will keep rising, and Assateague’s slow west- 
ward migration may accelerate. Ennis knows the island well enough to 
suspect that these changes are under way. Assateague’s maintenance 
crew is already confronting the consequences. On the south end of 
the island, storms destroyed the parking lots six times in 10 years. The 
visitors center was damaged three times. Repair was expensive, and 
after fist-size chunks of asphalt from old parking lots began to litter 
the beach, it began to seem worse than futile to Ennis. 

A tinkerer by nature—he grew up on a small farm on Maryland’s 
Eastern Shore—he realized the situation called for mechanical cre- 
ativity. Working with the park’s architect, Ennis and his co-workers 
adapted the toilets, showers, and beach shelters so that they could be 
moved quickly, ahead of an approaching storm. They experimented 
with different parking lot surfaces, finally arriving at a porous sur- 
face of loose clamshells—the kind often used on local driveways— 
that could be repaired easily and, when necessary, bulldozed to a 
new location. “It was a lot of what we called ‘Eastern Shore engi- 
neering, ” Ennis says, laughing. “We weren’t thinking about climate 
change. We did it because we had to.” He lowers his voice, mock- 
conspiratorially. “It was all by accident.” 





108 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC « DECEMBER 2016 





By Michelle Nijhuis 
Photographs by 
Keith Ladzinski 


This is the last article 

in a yearlong series 
commemorating the 100th 
anniversary of the National 
Park Service. For more 
stories, photos, and videos 
on the power of parks and 
the threats to them, go to 
nationalgeographic.com/ 
power-of-parks. 











Accidental or not, these modest adaptations were the beginning 
of something broader. The seashore is now one of the first national 
parks in the country to explicitly address—and accept—the effects of 
climate change. Under its draft general management plan, the park 
will not try to fight the inevitable: It will continue to move as the island 
moves, shifting its structures with the sands. If rising seas and wors- 
ening storm surges make it impractical to maintain the state-owned 
bridge that connects Assateague to the mainland, the plan says, park 
visitors will just have to take a ferry. 


WHEN CONGRESS PASSED THE ACT CREATING the National Park 
Service in the summer of 1916, it instructed the agency to leave park 
scenery and wildlife “unimpaired for the enjoyment of future gen- 
erations.” The law did not define “unimpaired.” To Stephen Mather, 
the charismatic borax magnate who served as the first director of the 
Park Service, it meant simply “undeveloped.” Early park managers fol- 
lowed his lead, striving both to protect and to promote sublime vistas. 

But the arguments began almost as soon as the agency was 
born. In September 1916 the prominent California zoologist Joseph 


CAPE HATTERAS 
NATIONAL SEASHORE, 
NORTH CAROLINA 


Sea-level rise 


Just off the coast, Hatteras 
Island forms a slender barrier 
between the mainland and the 
open ocean, as Assateague 
Island does off Maryland 

and Virginia. Rising seas and 
intensifying storms are 


narrowing Hatteras, damaging 
habitats and historic struc- 
tures and threatening to 
expose the mainland to the 
storms full fury. 


THE PARKS OF TOMORROW 109 





DROUGHT 
Joshua Tree 
National Park 


Joshua tree seedlings need 

rain to endure summer heat, but 
droughts have become more 
frequent and longer lasting. 
Scientists predict that by 2100 
only isolated pockets of these 
now widespread trees will be 
found within park boundaries. 


Months of severe drought 
Palmer Drought Severity Index 


12 


sw 


N 


) | 
Li 


1895 1955 2015 


MONICA SERRANO, NGM STAFF 


SOURCES: CAMERON BARROWS, 
UC RIVERSIDE; NOAA 


Grinnell, writing in the journal Science, suggested that the Park Ser- 
vice should protect not just scenery but also the “original balance 
in plant and animal life.” Over the next few decades, wildlife biolo- 
gists inside and outside the agency echoed Grinnell, calling for the 
parks to remain “unimpaired,” in ecological terms. But the public 
came to the parks for spectacles—volcanoes, waterfalls, trees you 
can drive a car through—and preserving them remained the agency’s 
primary concern. 

In the early 1960s, Secretary of the Interior Stewart Udall—who 
would oversee the addition of nearly 50 sites to the National Park 
System, including Assateague—became concerned about the agen- 
cy’s management of wildlife in the parks. He recruited University of 
California wildlife biologist Starker Leopold, the son of famed conser- 
vationist Aldo Leopold, to chair an independent study. 

The Leopold Report proved hugely influential. Like Grinnell, it 
called on the Park Service to maintain the original “biotic associa- 
tions” that existed at the time of European settlement. In the decades 
that followed, the Park Service got more scientific. Park managers be- 
gan setting controlled fires in forests where natural wildfires had long 
been suppressed; they reintroduced species that had vanished, such 
as wolves and bighorn sheep. The focus, though, was less on restor- 
ing ecological processes than on re-creating static scenes—on making 
each park, as the Leopold Report recommended, into a “vignette of 
primitive America.” In time that vision took on what Yellowstone his- 
torian Paul Schullery describes as an “almost scriptural aura.” 

And yet, as Leopold himself later acknowledged, it was misleading. 
The notion of presettlement America as primitive ignored the long im- 
pact Native Americans had had on park landscapes, through hunting 
and setting fires of their own. It ignored the fact that nature itself, left 
to its own devices, does not tend toward a steady state—landscapes 
and ecosystems are always being changed by storms or droughts or 
fires or floods, or even by the interactions of living things. The ecologi- 
cal scenes the Park Service strove to maintain, from a largely imagined 
past, were in a way just a new version of the spectacles it had always 
felt bound to deliver to visitors. 

“The Park Service has had a tacit agreement with the American pub- 
lic that it’s going to keep things looking as they’ve always looked,” says 
Nate Stephenson, an ecologist who studies forests at Sequoia, Kings 
Canyon, and Yosemite National Parks. “But time does not stop here.” 


FROM THE 1980S ON, SCIENTISTS gradually came to accept that 
a new sort of change was under way. The glaciers in Glacier Nation- 
al Park were shrinking, wildfires in Sequoia were getting larger, and 
coastal parks were losing ground to rising seas. Shortly after the turn 
of the century, researchers in Glacier announced that by 2030 even 
the park’s largest glaciers would likely disappear. 

In 2003 a group of researchers at the University of California, 


110 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC « DECEMBER 2016 


Berkeley began to retrace the footsteps of Joseph Grinnell. In Yosem- 
ite and other California parks, the zoologist had conducted fanatically 
detailed wildlife surveys, predicting their value would not “be realized 
until the lapse of many years, possibly a century.” When the Berke- 
ley researchers compared their own Yosemite surveys and other data 
with Grinnell’s 90-year-old snapshot, they noticed that the ranges of 
several small mammals had shifted significantly uphill, toward the 
ridgeline of the Sierra Nevada. Two other once common mammals, a 
chipmunk and a wood rat, were almost extinct in the park. The pattern 
was clear: Climate change had arrived in Yosemite too, and animals 
were migrating to escape the heat. 

For a while the Park Service avoided talking about the subject. To 
acknowledge the reality of human-caused climate change was a po- 
litical act, and the Park Service doesn’t discuss politics with its visi- 
tors. At Glacier the interpretive signs made only a passing reference 
to rising temperatures. Rangers avoided talk of causes. “We were very 
constrained,” remembers William Tweed, former chief of interpreta- 
tion at Sequoia and Kings Canyon. “The message we got from above 
was basically, ‘Don’t go into it if you can help it.” 

The problem, though, ran deeper than transient politics. People 
had long come to national parks to experience the eternal—to get 
a glimpse, however deceptive, of nature in its stable, “unimpaired” 
state. The inconvenient truth of climate change made it more and 
more difficult for the Park Service to offer that illusion. But no one 
knew what the national parks should offer instead. 


WHEN NATE STEPHENSON was Six years old, his parents fitted him 
with boots and a hand-built wooden pack frame and took him back- 
packing in Kings Canyon National Park. For most of the 53 years since, 
Stephenson has been hiking the ancient forests of the Sierra Nevada. 
“They're the center of my universe,” he says. Soon after he graduated 
from UC Irvine, he packed up his Dodge Dart and fled Southern Cali- 
fornia for asummer job at Sequoia National Park. Now he’s a research 
ecologist there, studying how the park’s forests are changing. 

While park managers are often consumed by immediate crises, 
researchers like Stephenson have the flexibility—and the responsi- 
bility—to contemplate the more distant future. In the 1990s this long 
view became deeply disturbing to him. He had always assumed that 
the sequoia and foxtail pine stands surrounding him would last far 
longer than he would, but when he considered the possible effects 
of rising temperatures and extended drought, he wasn’t so sure—he 
could see the “vignette of primitive America” dissolving into an inac- 
cessible past. The realization threw him into a funk that lasted years. 

“T was a firm believer in the mission of the Park Service,” Stephen- 
son remembers, “and suddenly I saw that the mission we had was not 
going to be the same as the mission of the future. We could no longer 
use the past as a target for restoration—we were entering an era where 


GLACIAL RETREAT 
Glacier 
National Park 


In 1850 there were about 150 
glaciers in what is now the park. 
Today only 25 remain. Grinnell 
Glacier has decreased in area 
by more than 75 percent. 


MATTHEW W. CHWASTYK, NGM STAFF 


SOURCES: NATIONAL PARK SERVICE (NPS); 
DAN FAGRE AND MARK FAHEY, USGS 


THE PARKS OF TOMORROW 111 


GLACIER NATIONAL PARK, 
MONTANA 


Fires 


Cloaked in smoke from wildfires 

as far away as Washington State, 
iWaloMcx=)ge@-1Ko10 M Olt- come) maal-malelacatslaal 
acoxer.((=s-me leh mlamial=manreaaliaremielaim 
Fires in the West are growing larger 
and more destructive as tempera- 
Ul gstoM a lsyou-laleme|gelblelalmel=\-)el-1al-n 












force salt water into the Evergla les, ve 
Fal [fe Fe\ko) em aat-\m ol=m=10(0(-1eme]Uim eo)’ meicelerors 
diles, which can excrete excess salt 
iualcesUle|amtatsslamceyare [Coe 








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SEA-LEVEL RISE 
Everglades 
National Park 


With 84 percent of the park 
already at an altitude of less 
than one meter (3.3 feet), 
sea-level rise is increasing 
the likelihood and extent of 
saltwater intrusion during 
storms and high tides. The 
park’s freshwater inland 
marshes are giving way to 
brackish and marine habitats. 


Typical conditions 

Saw grass marshes flourish 
in fresh groundwater, while 
mangroves thrive in saline 
and brackish environments. 


that was not only impossible, but might even be undesirable.” 

Stephenson began what he calls a “road show,” giving presenta- 
tions to Park Service colleagues about the need for a new mission. 
Somewhat mischievously, he proposed a thought experiment: What 
if Sequoia National Park became too hot and dry for its eponymous 
trees? Should park managers, who are supposed to leave wild nature 
alone, irrigate sequoias to save them? Should they start planting se- 
quoia seedlings in cooler, wetter climes, even outside park boundar- 
ies? Should they do both—or neither? 

His audiences squirmed. Leopold had left them no answers. 

On a late September day in Sequoia National Park, the sky is clear, 
blue, and thanks to a brisk wind, free of smoke from the wildfire burn- 
ing just over the crest of the Sierra Nevada. Stephenson and his field 
crew are finishing a season of forest surveys, adding to a decades-long 
record of forest health. In their lowest-elevation study sites, below the 
sequoia zone, 16 percent of the trees have died this year, approximate- 
ly 10-fold the usual rate. “It’s about what you'd see after a low-grade 
wildfire,” says Stephenson. Weakened by years of drought, many of the 
low-elevation trees are dying from insect attacks. At higher elevations, 
in the sequoia stands, several old giants have dropped some of their 


needles to combat drought stress; a few that were already damaged by 






SAW GRASS e ce 9 ¢ e Lf 399 
MARSH MANGROVES fire have died. “It’s not ‘The sequoias are dying, ” Stephenson empha- 
AMAA sizes. “The sequoias are doing relatively well. It’s the pines, the firs, 
PEAT . 
Ya the incense cedars—the whole forest is affected. 
FRESH- _; SALT: aieaae The current drought may be a preview of the future, but the trouble 
WATER = 2WATER ee. 


with climate change—at Sequoia and elsewhere—is that many of its 
effects are hard to predict. Average temperatures at Sequoia will rise, 
and snow will give way to rain, but it’s not clear whether total precip- 
itation will increase or decrease, or whether the changes will be grad- 
ual or abrupt. “We don’t know which scenario is going to play out,” 
says Sequoia and Kings Canyon Superintendent Woody Smeck. The 
Park Service can no longer re-create the past, and it can’t count on the 
future. Instead, it must prepare for multiple, wildly different futures. 


Sea-level rise 

As encroaching salt water 
degrades peat, marshes 
recede and collapse, and 
mangroves advance inland. 






AULA che 2 \& ate ae 


IN 2009 PARK SERVICE DIRECTOR Jonathan Jarvis assembled a 
committee of outside experts to reexamine the Leopold Report. The 
resulting document, “Revisiting Leopold,” proposed a new set of goals 
for the agency. Instead of primitive vignettes, the Park Service would 
manage for “continuous change that is not yet fully understood.” 
Instead of “ecologic scenes,” it would strive to preserve “ecological 
integrity and cultural and historical authenticity.” Instead of static 
vistas, visitors would get “transformative experiences.” Perhaps most 
important, parks would “form the core of a national conservation 
land- and seascape.” They’d be managed not as islands but as part of 
a network of protected lands. 

The report is not yet official policy. But it’s the agency’s clearest 
acknowledgment yet of the changes afoot and the need to manage 


SALTWATER 
INTRUSION 


SOURCES: NPS; EVERGLADES 
FOUNDATION; FLORIDA INTERNATIONAL 
UNIVERSITY; SOUTH FLORIDA WATER 
MANAGEMENT DISTRICT 


116 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC « DECEMBER 2016 


for them. Exactly what that management looks like isn’t certain, and 
much of it will be worked out park by park, determined by science, 
politics, and money. Some parks have already gone to great lengths 
to resist change: Cape Hatteras National Seashore, for instance, spent 
almost $12 million to move a famous lighthouse a half mile inland. 
But such dramatic measures are rare and likely to remain so; the Park 
Service budget today is about what it was in 2008. 

Instead, many parks are looking to boost their tolerance for change, 
adapting their own infrastructure and helping their flora and fauna do 
the same. At Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore, scientists are search- 
ing the oak savannas for cooler microclimates into which the Park Ser- 
vice might transport the endangered Karner blue butterfly, which has 
been all but driven from the park. In Glacier, biologists have already 
captured bull trout and carried them in backpacks to a higher, cooler 
lake outside their historic range. The idea is to give the fish a refuge 
both from climate change and from invasive lake trout. 

At Sequoia, Stephenson wants park managers to consider planting 
sequoia seedlings in a higher, cooler part of the park—to see how the 
seedlings fare, and also how the public would respond to experiment- 
ing with the icons. “We have to start trying things,” he says. 

At Assateague, while Ennis’s successors prepare the parking lots 
and toilets for change, Liz Davis, the chief of education, is preparing 
the park’s younger visitors. In 25 years at Assateague she has intro- 
duced countless school groups to the seashore. When elementary stu- 
dents visit, she takes them to the beach, shapes a model of the island 
out of sand, and throws a bucket of seawater across it to show how the 
island shifts. Then she turns the model over to the kids: Where would 
they put the parking lots and campgrounds? How about the visitors 
center? “They get really into it,” she says, laughing. “They’ll say, No, 
no, don’t put the new ranger station there, it’ll get washed away!” 

Like the Park Service, visitors must learn to accept that their favor- 
ite park might change. “People ask, ‘Will I still be able to enjoy it? Will 
my kids and grandkids be able to enjoy it?’” Davis says. “The answer is 
yes, they will. They might not enjoy it in the same way, and they might 
not get here the same way. But they will still be able to enjoy it.” U 


Michelle Nijhuis has covered climate change and conser- 
vation for 15 years, beginning as a reporter for High Country 
News in Colorado. For National Geographic she has written 
about the prospects for “clean” coal, the California drought, 
and in the May 2015 issue, dams on the Mekong River. 


Keith Ladzinski grew up playing in the Colorado Rockies 
and has worked on all seven continents as an outdoor and 
adventure photographer. For National Geographic he has 
shot films on extreme climbing expeditions in China and 
Antarctica; this is his first photographic assignment. 





DARCY HUNTER (TOP); 
ANDY MANN 


OCEAN ACIDIFICATION 
Olympic 
National Park 


As the ocean absorbs at 
least a quarter of the carbon 
dioxide emitted by humans, 
its pH is falling: The water 

is getting more acidic. That 
can harm marine life — mak- 
ing it harder, for example, for 
species such as mussels to 
form shells. 


Ocean pH 


— Trend line pH measurement 


9.0 


o1ploe S10 





a 
2000 2008 2016 


Mussel-shell thickness 


Cross 1970s 2000s 
section 6.7mm 4.8mm 





af 


California mussel 
(Mytilus californianus) 


SOURCES: TIM WOOTTON AND CATHY 
PFISTER, UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO 


THE PARKS OF TOMORROW 117 


CAPE HATTERAS 
NATIONAL SEASHORE, 
NORTH CAROLINA 


Extreme weather 


This photograph was taken under- 
water —filaments of algae are growing 
Taare im low alelaaarsli\var-melavmilsyem-lmcal- 
Cape Point Campground on Hatteras 
FS] FeTave Mm DIU lalave miele) mer=\\c-mialicm ey toye 

cs) o} alae pmealomasvanlar-lalecme) mice) e)ier-lm-jice)aan| 
So) alal(=mel0l pal ey-velr-\iagvey-imu em lalelal--me) i 
ecliame)amial-mli(-laleme-leleleim-meler-lan-ve 

fo) mtal=m-lalaler-le-\Acle- le (oe 





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JOSHUA TREE NATIONAL PARK, 
CALIFORNIA 





Heat, drought 


A Joshua tree seems to bend a shelter- 
Tate = laanme)c-)ar-W\V/(e)(-hV.om\L0 ecer- al =)¥ar-a ROLO) 
‘aley-1 me) mi atm oy- 1a @aat-\vm e-mcolonelava-lare 
ako) mice) mi dal>mae-\-\-em oLUim ey-la @e)(e)(erelt-ym (11 
Frakes isn’t giving up on them. “Joshua 
| incredibly resilient,” he says. 
at the future isn’t as 





i 


PROOF | A PHOTOGRAPHER’S JOURNAL 


iMeleocnet 
Waren melueine 


A research station in Tanzania embodies the promise 
of the past—and a dream that never quite came true. 


122 








British entomologist John Raybould, 
UST aveMlatsysreq nets to snare specimens. 


uP 
ee 
= 
= 


Fs 


PROOF | A PHOTOGRAPHER’S JOURNAL | 


NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC.COM/ PROOF 





By Jeremy Berlin 
Photographs by Evgenia Arbugaeva 


n a hilltop in northeastern Tan- 
zania, high up in the Usambara 
Mountains, memories are tangible 
things. Modernist buildings litter 
the lush jungle. European trees 
and medicinal plants, affixed with Latin labels, 
mingle with local species. Scientific instruments 
and a fully stocked library are poised for use. 
This is what’s left of the Amani Hill Research 
Station—a past vision of the future, suspended 
in time. It’s also what brought Siberian photogra- 
pher Evgenia Arbugaeva to East Africa two years 
ago. Her aim? To document the nostalgia that 
lingers here and create images that “bring back 
the atmosphere of this dark, magical place.” 
Arbugaeva worked closely with Wenzel 
Geissler, an anthropologist at the University 


124 NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC « DECEMBER 2016 


of Oslo. For the past several years, he and his 
team—an international consortium of scientists, 
historians, and artists—have been studying old 
research stations in the tropics. Their project 
examines the memories, perceptions, and 
expectations of those who used to live and work 
at these postcolonial scientific sites. 

Yet Amani is not a ruin. A staff of 34—elderly 
watchmen and maintenance workers, a librarian, 
afew lab attendants—still lives there in the shells 
of houses, many without water or electricity. 
Some say they’re waiting for the site to be revived. 

“Amani stands for the dreams of science and 
progress bequeathed upon colonial populations,” 
says Geissler. “When funding dried up here in the 
early 1980s, dreams did too. But hypothetically 
it’s all there to be switched on again. In these 
buildings—in these people’s memories and 
dreams—the idea of a potential future lives on.” 

Amani was founded in the late 19th century as 
a German botanical garden and coffee plantation. 





After World War II it became a British malaria 
research institute. Since 1979 it’s been operated 
by Tanzania’s National Institute for Medical Re- 
search, which pays the current staff to maintain 
the site for future use. 

To “channel the spirit, motion, and beauty of 
the place” as it stands today, Arbugaeva spent a 
lot of time in the past—“in the library, amid all 
the dusty old books on natural history and dis- 
eases, reading by candlelight.” She also shad- 
owed John Mganga, a retired lab assistant. 

“He loved to tell me stories,” she says. “And to 
dream—to imagine what the people who used to 
work there are doing. He loves the idea of being 
part of something bigger, part of science. He’s 
still connected to Amani. And he still misses it.” 

Geissler says collaborating with Arbugaeva 
was invaluable because she was able to turn work- 
ers’ memories of old routines and rituals into 
images. “That helps us read the traces of a once 
ordered past—this idea of progress in alandscape 


NGM MAPS 


that seems like it’s only ruins and loss,” he says. 
Her photos capture a sense of “shared nostalgia 
for...a modernity we never quite reached.” 

Arbugaeva agrees. “I want people to see what I 
saw: a hidden world that existed before and that 
still exists in memories. Somebody’s still dream- 
ing about it. I want to bring people there.” U 


AMANI HILL 
RESEARCH STATION 


Dar es Salaam 


TRACES OF THE FUTURE 125 


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Amani — “hidden waterfalls and his favorite spots, the houses 
where British staff used to live,” and this collection of insects, 
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Unlike some assistants at Amani, the 
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in alab — “really lost something when 
the whole place folded,” says University 
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“He had truly believed in science and 
the country’s future. He lived that 
dream. And he suffered from losing it.” 





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IN THE LOUPE | WITH BILL BONNER, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC ARCHIVIST 


CROWNING 
GLORY 


By Eve Conant 


The star of this 1919 photo — the ideal image 
to cap our coverage of the National Park 
Service’s centennial year —is Old Faithful. 
The geyser in Yellowstone National Park 
mesmerizes us today as it did these women 
(inset) nearly a century ago. While the pair 
appear to be viewing one of America’s best 
known landmarks at a precariously close 
range, they did remember to shield them- 
selves from the sun —or perhaps a scalding 
mineral spray — with their elegant parasols. 


From the Editors 

Bill Bonner has brought a gift for un- 
earthing just the right photo to In the 
Loupe and to countless other projects. 
During more than 33 years as the archi- 
vist of National Geographic’s vintage col- 
lection, Bonner—wearing his trademark 
white cotton gloves—lovingly tended a 
collection containing some eight million 
photographs. 

This year he began his well-earned 
retirement. So after this issue we’re re- 
tiring In the Loupe as well. 

Bonner always kept a loupe on hand 
to hunt for details hidden from the na- 
ked eye, says senior photo editor Jessie 
Wender: “There are few people who look 
at the past with such care.” 

Ina2014 documentary video about his 
distinguished career, Bonner describes 
photographs as “shadows of history that 
you can actually see... of people like us, 
just doing our thing, just living our life.” 
As he moves on to do exactly that, we 
wish him well. 





PHOTO: SUMNER W. MATTESON, NATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC CREATIVE 


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Tataaerelerdliatemant-mal- vm Crolamallcde-el Quidam 1/1 O86 1O)\\ ba all-wheel drive 
Soon-to be everywhere. 


Let's rethink dirt. Because with dirt alsocomes greengrass, tall trees, and roads far less traveled. 
That's why we equipped the Golf Alltrack with 4MOTION all-wheel drive and an Off-Road Mode’ 
Yoyo] mor-lane( oh ol0h a dal-le-m-¥ ale mc{-1/4-Maa (om ol-r-V0] aye) mi dalicMel| a texeo)’,-1¢-1e mo) a co pme(-tmnvZol0) maui al-1-1cmaslele (enya 

and wash off all that civilization. After all, dirt is the greatest of cleansers. 


*Optional accessories shown. Always ensure that your vehicle is equipped with appropriate tires and equipment and always adjust your speed and driving style 
to the road, terrain, traffic, and weather conditions. See Owner’s Manual for further details and important limitations. ©2016 Volkswagen of America, Inc.